Judgment of the General Court of 24 January 2024 – Spain v Commission
(Case T-495/21) 1
(EAGF and EAFRD – Expenditure excluded from financing – Expenditure incurred by Spain – Financial corrections – Key controls – Cross-checks and updating of the SIGPAC – Article 5 of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 640/2014 – Articles 28 and 29 of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 809/2014 – Manifest error of assessment – On-the-spot checks – Flat-rate correction covering all the deficiencies found – Article 12 of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014 – Guidelines on the calculation of financial corrections)
Language of the case: Spanish
Parties
Applicant: Kingdom of Spain (represented by: L. Aguilera Ruiz and A. Ballesteros Panizo, acting as Agents)
Defendant: European Commission (represented by: J. Aquilina, F. Castilla Contreras and I. Galindo Martín, acting as Agents)
Re:
By its action under Article 263 TFEU, the Kingdom of Spain seeks the annulment of Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/988 of 16 June 2021 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) (OJ 2021 L 218, p. 9), in so far as it concerns the reimbursement of direct aids in relation to financial discipline and the expenditure which that Member State incurred in respect of decoupled direct aids regarding the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (Spain) for the claim years 2016-2018.
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Dismisses the action;
Orders the Kingdom of Spain to pay the costs.
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1 OJ C 401, 4.10.2021.