CELEX: C2006/281/72
Language: en
Date: 2006-11-18 00:00:00
Title: Case T-263/06: Action brought on 25 September 2006 — Greece v Commission

18.11.2006   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 281/41
            
         Action brought on 25 September 2006 — Greece v Commission
   (Case T-263/06)
   (2006/C 281/72)
   Language of the case: Greek
   Parties
   
      Applicant: Hellenic Republic (represented by: I. Khalkias, G. Kanellopoulos)
   
      Defendant: Commission of the European Communities
   Form of order sought
   
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               annul the Commission Decision of 27 July 2006 excluding from Community financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), notified under document number C(2006) 3331 final and published under number 2006/554/EC (1);
            
         
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               in the alternative, alter it as set out more specifically below;
            
         
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               order the Commission to pay the costs.
            
         Pleas in law and main arguments
   By the contested decision, the Commission, clearing accounts under Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 (2), excluded from Community financing inter alia certain expenditure which had been incurred by the Hellenic Republic in the area of measures accompanying rural development and had been declared under the Guarantee Section of the EAGGF.
   The applicant advances as a general ground for annulment of Commission Decision C(2006) 3331 final the infringement of an essential requirement of the procedure for clearing accounts laid down in subparagraph (a) of the third subparagraph of Article 8(1) of Regulation No 1663/95 (3). Specifically, it submits that the Commission failed to engage in a bilateral discussion with the Greek authorities on an evaluation of the gravity of the infringements attributed to them and the financial loss to the Community; in the alternative it raises the Commission's lack of power ratione temporis to impose the financial corrections at issue.
   
      (1)  OJ L 218, 9.8.2006, p. 12.
   
      (2)  Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of the Council of 21 April 1970 on the financing of the common agricultural policy (OJ, English Special Edition 1970 (I), p. 218).
   
      (3)  Commission Regulation (EC) No 1663/95 of 7 July 1995 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 regarding the procedure for the clearance of the accounts of the EAGGF Guarantee Section (OJ L 158, 8.7.1995, p. 6).