Case C-42/24, Emporiki Serron – Emporias kai Diathesis Agrotikon Proionton: Judgment of the Court (Sixth Chamber) of 6 February 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Symvoulio tis Epikrateias – Greece) – Emporiki Serron AE – Emporias kai Diathesis Agrotikon Proionton v Ypourgos Anaptyxis kai Ependyseon, Ypourgos Agrotikis Anaptyxis kai Trofimon (Reference for a preliminary ruling – Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95 – Irregularities – Article 3 – Limitation period – Duration and starting point of that period – National legislation providing for a five-year limitation period as from the time the irregularity is discovered)
Date: 2025-02-06
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: control of State aid, general budget (EU), infringement of EU law, limitation of legal proceedings, principle of proportionality, reimbursement of aid








C_202501734EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/1734


31.3.2025






Judgment of the Court (Sixth Chamber) of 6 February 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Symvoulio tis Epikrateias – Greece) – Emporiki Serron AE – Emporias kai Diathesis Agrotikon Proionton v Ypourgos Anaptyxis kai Ependyseon, Ypourgos Agrotikis Anaptyxis kai Trofimon


(Case C-42/24,
                (1)
Emporiki Serron – Emporias kai Diathesis Agrotikon Proionton)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Protection of the European Union’s financial interests - Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95 - Irregularities - Article 3 - Limitation period - Duration and starting point of that period - National legislation providing for a five-year limitation period as from the time the irregularity is discovered)
(C/2025/1734)
Language of the case: Greek

Referring court

Symvoulio tis Epikrateias

Parties to the main proceedings


Appellant: Emporiki Serron AE – Emporias kai Diathesis Agrotikon Proionton

Respondents: Ypourgos Anaptyxis kai Ependyseon, Ypourgos Agrotikis Anaptyxis kai Trofimon

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 3(1) and (3) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95 of 18 December 1995 on the protection of the European Communities financial interests, read in the light of the principle of legal certainty,
must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which sets a longer limitation period than that provided for in Article 3(1) of Regulation No 2988/95, subject to observing the principle of proportionality. In contrast, those provisions preclude national legislation which provides that that limitation period runs as from the date on which the national authorities discovered an irregularity with regard to the provisions of that regulation.










2.


The fourth subparagraph of Article 3(1) of Regulation No 2988/95
must be interpreted as meaning that where a Member State has made use of the possibility offered by Article 3(3) of that regulation to provide for a longer limitation period than the four-year limitation period provided for in the first subparagraph of Article 3(1) of that regulation, the absolute limitation period set in the fourth subparagraph of Article 3(1) of that regulation must be calculated by reference to that longer limitation period.






(1)  OJ C C/2024/3052.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/1734/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)