Mittetulundusühing Järvelaev v Põllumajanduse Registrite ja Informatsiooni Amet (PRIA).
Date: 2019-05-08
44


It should be stated at the outset that it is not for the Court to characterise specifically the modifications at issue in the main proceedings. That falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the national court. The Court’s role is confined to providing an interpretation of EU law which will be useful to that court for the purposes of adjudicating the dispute before it. That said, the Court may determine the relevant factors capable of assisting the referring court in its assessment (see, by analogy, as regards Article 30(4) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999 of 21 June 1999 laying down general provisions on the Structural Funds (OJ 1999 L 161, p. 1), judgment of 14 November 2013, Comune di Ancona, C‑388/12, EU:C:2013:734, paragraph 19 and the case-law cited).
47


The Court notes, in that context, that, in view of the fact that in Article 72(1) of Regulation No 1698/2005 the EU legislature took care to add the qualification ‘substantial’ in order to indicate the kind of modification covered, it follows that a modification must, if it is to fall within the scope thereof, be fairly significant (see, by analogy, judgment of 14 November 2013, Comune di Ancona, C‑388/12, EU:C:2013:734, paragraph 35).
48


Thus, the first step is to consider whether the modification in question meets the conditions laid down in Article 72(1)(b) of Regulation No 1698/2005, under which the modification must result either from a change in the nature of ownership of an item of infrastructure or a cessation or relocation of a productive activity. In checking that those conditions are met, it is necessary to assess the factors which gave rise to the modification in question and which can therefore be said to constitute its causes (see, by analogy, judgment of 14 November 2013, Comune di Ancona, C‑388/12, EU:C:2013:734, paragraph 21).
52


The second step is to consider whether the modification in question is covered by one of the cases referred to in Article 72(1)(a) of the regulation, that is to say, whether it affects the nature or implementation conditions of the operation concerned or gives undue advantage to a firm or public body, those being cases which relate to the effects of the modification (see, by analogy, judgment of 14 November 2013, Comune di Ancona, C‑388/12, EU:C:2013:734, paragraph 22).
53


Therefore, before making a finding as to the existence or not of a substantial modification, it is necessary to determine whether the modification in question has given rise to undue advantage and/or whether it has affected the nature or implementation conditions of the operation (see, by analogy, judgment of 14 November 2013, Comune di Ancona, C‑388/12, EU:C:2013:734, paragraph 32).
58


However, such a substitution of the owner by a lessee for the purposes of achieving an operation, as well as the lack of the job creation initially foreseen during the selection procedure for awarding the funding, as referred to by the referring court in Question 6, are circumstances capable of justifying the conclusion that the nature or implementation conditions of an operation have undergone such a modification if they significantly reduce the capacity of that operation to attain its designated objective, which is for that court to ascertain (see, to that effect and by analogy, judgment of 14 November 2013, Comune di Ancona, C‑388/12, EU:C:2013:734, paragraph 37).