Notices for publication in the OJ nº T-333/09 of Court of First Instance of the European Communities, October 23, 2009

• Resolution Date: October 23, 2009
• Issuing Organization: Court of First Instance of the European Communities
• Decision Number: T-333/09

Action brought on 20 August 2009 - Poland v Commission

(Case T-333/09)

Language of the case: Polish

Parties

Claimant: Republic of Poland (represented by: M. Dowgielewicz, Agent)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

declare invalid Annex I to Commission Decision 2009/444/EC of 10 June 2009 (notified under document number C(2009) 4375) allocating the amounts resulting from the modulation provided for in Articles 7 and 10 of Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 to the Member States for the years 2009 to 2012, in so far as it determines, for 2012, the allocation to the Member States of the amounts resulting from the modulation provided for in accordance with Article 9(2) and (3) of Regulation (EC) No 73/2009;

order the Commission to pay the costs of the proceedings.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of its claim that Commission Decision 2009/444/EC should be declared partially invalid, the claimant makes the following submissions.

First, the claimant alleges an infringement of the principle of the hierarchy of legal norms by reason of the adoption of measures which are contrary to Article 9(2) of Regulation No 73/2009. The claimant submits in this regard that the contested decision divides the amounts provided for the whole of the period 2009-2012 exclusively among the States of the Community of Fifteen, whereas Article 9(2) of Regulation No 73/2009 provides that, from 2012, those States will not be the only Member States to be affected by that modulation. In connection with the foregoing, in the claimant's view, the new Member States will also have to be subject to that mechanism with regard to 2012.

Second, the claimant alleges that there has been an infringement of, first, the principle that funds should be allocated from the modulation in accordance with objective criteria, which principle follows from recital 14 in the preamble to Regulation No 73/2009 and from Article 9(2) thereof and, second, the principle of solidarity.

Third, the claimant alleges that the principle of non-discrimination has been infringed, in so far as, in its view, the criteria applied by the Commission for the allocation of funds from the modulation for 2012 (such as the date of accession of a particular Member State to the European Union and the level of contributions of a given Member State to the allocation of funds from the modulation), which led to the exclusion of the Republic of Poland and other new Member States from...