Gunārs Pusts v Lauku atbalsta dienests.
Date: 2013-02-07
30. Articles 22 to 24 of Regulation No 1257/1999 set out the general conditions for the grant of support for farming practices designed, in particular, to maintain the countryside. It follows from those provisions that agri-environmental measures are characterised by the five-year commitment given by the farmers concerned to practise a form of agriculture which respects the environment. In return for the agri-environmental commitments for a minimum of five years, financial support is allocated annually by the States according to the loss of revenue incurred or the resulting additional costs (see Case C-241/07 JK Otsa Talu  [2009] ECR I-4323, paragraph 36, and Case C-188/11 Hehenberger  [2012] ECR, paragraph 30).
32. As regards the applications for support for agri-environmental production methods based on Articles 22 to 24 of Regulation No 1257/1999, Article 66(5) of Regulation No 817/2004 provides that, where support is multiannual, payments subsequent to that made in the year in which an application was submitted must be made in response to an annual application for payment, except where the Member State has introduced an effective annual verification procedure as referred to in Article 67(1). It is apparent from that Article 66(5) that, apart from the existence of such a national procedure, no payment is made to farmers if they do not submit an annual application for payment. Submission of that annual application thus constitutes a condition governing eligibility for receiving agri-environmental aid on the basis of Articles 22 to 24.
33. The importance of submitting an annual application for payment of agri-environmental aid is also made clear in Article 67(1) of Regulation No 817/2004, which provides, as regards the system for checking the multiannual support for agri-environmental production methods, that initial applications to join a scheme and subsequent applications for payment must be checked in a manner which ensures effective verification of compliance with the conditions for granting support. Accordingly, the submission of such an annual application makes it possible to verify compliance with the agri-environmental commitments which have been given. In basing itself on that annual application, the organisation which makes the payments is in a position to verify effectively each year whether there continues to be compliance with those commitments covering several years and, where appropriate, to pay that aid.
35. Furthermore, it is necessary to note that, so far as concerns the agri-environmental aid characterised by a multi-annual commitment, the conditions for the grant of support must be observed throughout the commitment period in respect of which the support was granted (see Hehenberger , paragraph 34). Therefore, if one of the conditions for the grant of such aid, such as the submission of an annual application for payment of support required by the national rules at issue in the main proceedings, is not complied with, even if only once, throughout the duration of the agri-environmental project in respect of which the beneficiary of that same aid has given a commitment, that aid cannot be granted.
36. In that regard, the fact that the beneficiary of the agri-environmental aid continued to fulfil the other conditions for the grant of that aid, and in particular his obligations relating to the use of the areas concerned, cannot prevent the exclusion from the benefit of that aid to which failure to comply with one of those conditions gives rise. The grant of that aid is subject to compliance with all of the eligibility conditions throughout the duration of the agri-environmental project to which that beneficiary has committed, with the result that failure to comply with one of those conditions is sufficient, in itself, to give rise to that exclusion.
37. In the event of exclusion from the benefit of agri-environmental aid by reason of failure to comply with the conditions governing the grant of that aid, it is clear from Article 71(2) of Regulation No 817/2004, which relates back to Article 73 of Regulation No 796/2004, that the beneficiary of that aid is required to repay all the amounts already paid in respect of the aid to which entitlement has been excluded (see Hehenberger , paragraph 36).