Notices for publication in the OJ nº T-530/18 of Tribunal General de la Unión Europea, October 26, 2018

• Resolution Date: October 26, 2018
• Issuing Organization: Tribunal General de la Unión Europea
• Decision Number: T-530/18

Action brought on 7 September 2018 - Romania v Commission

(Case T-530/18)

Language of the case: Romanian

Parties

Applicant: Romania (represented by: C. Canţăr, E. Gane, C. Florescu and O. Ichim, acting as Agents)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

annul in part Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/873 of 13 June 2018 excluding from European Union financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) in so far as it concerns (a) sub-measure 1a in its entirety (the sum of EUR 13 184 846.61 for the years 2015 and 2016) and (b) sub-measures 3a, 5a, 3b and 4b in their entirety (the sum of EUR 45 532 000.96 for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016) or, in the alternative, in part, in respect of the period prior to 19 September 2015 (the sum of EUR 21 315 857.50);

order the European Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on two pleas in law.

First plea in law, alleging a misuse by the European Commission of its powers to exclude sums from European Union financing

By applying the corrections established by Decision 2018/873, the Commission misused its powers, thereby infringing Article 52 of Regulation No 1306/2013 and the principles of the protection of legitimate expectations and legal certainty.

The contested decision infringes Article 52 of Regulation No 1306/2013 in so far as the Commission, following discussions held with the Romanian authorities, decided to approve the revision of National Rural Development Programme (NRDP) 2007-2013, expressing its consent with regard to the measures set out in that NRDP, including the methodologies relating to payments concerning sub-measures 1a, 3a, 5a, 3b and 4b in the context of measure 215 - Animal welfare payments. The decision approving the revision of the NRDP is a legal commitment and entails making payments from the EU budget.

The Romanian authorities made payments in accordance with the approval given by the Commission. Against that background, the decision to apply the corrections is unlawful.

Romania considers that the contested decision infringes the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations, in so far as the Commission’s decision to approve the revision of the NRDP gave rise to a legitimate expectation on the...