Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 11 November 2021.Hellenic Republic v European Commission.Appeal – Common agricultural policy – EAGF and EAFRD – Expenditure excluded from EU financing – Expenditure incurred by the Hellenic Republic – Conformity clearance procedure – Plea raised for the first time during the oral proceedings at first instance – Regulation (EC) No 796/2004 – Article 2(2) – Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 – Article 4(1)(h) – Concept of ‘permanent pasture’ – Distortion of evidence – Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014 – Article 12(4) – One-off correction – Conditions – Burden of proof.Case C-106/20 P.

Judgment // 11/11/2021 // 2 min read
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Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 11 November 2021 – Greece v Commission

(Case C‑106/20 P) ( 1 )

(Appeal – Common agricultural policy – EAGF and EAFRD – Expenditure excluded from EU financing – Expenditure incurred by the Hellenic Republic – Conformity clearance procedure – Plea raised for the first time during the oral proceedings at first instance – Regulation (EC) No 796/2004 – Article 2 (2) – Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 – Article 4(1) (h) – Concept of ‘permanent pasture’ – Distortion of evidence – Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014 – Article 12(4) – One-off correction – Conditions – Burden of proof)

  1. Action for annulment – Jurisdiction of the EU judicature – Scope – Prohibition on ruling ultra petita – Examination by the court of its own motion of a plea involving a matter of public policy – Whether permissible – Examination by the EU judicature of its own motion of a plea not raised concerning the substantive legality of the contested decision – Not permissible

(Art. 263 TFEU)

(see paras 41, 46-48)

  1. Appeals – Grounds – Mistaken assessment of the facts and evidence – Inadmissibility – Review by the Court of the assessment of the facts and evidence – Possible only where the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted – Ground of appeal alleging distortion of the clear sense of the evidence – Need to indicate precisely the evidence alleged to have been distorted and show the errors of appraisal which led to that distortion

(Art. 256(1), second subpara., TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58, first para.)

(see paras 59, 60, 69, 80, 82, 88, 89)

  1. Agriculture – EAGF and EAFRD financing – Clearance of accounts – Disallowance of expenses arising from irregularities in applying EU rules – Financial correction – Cumulation of one-off and flat-rate corrections – Whether permissible

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1306/2013, Art. 52; Commission Regulation No 907/2014, Art. 12)

(see para. 90)

Operative part

The Court:

  1. Dismisses the appeal;

  2. Orders the Hellenic Republic to pay the costs.

( 1 ) OJ C 161, 11.5.2020.

Agriculture and Fisheries