Action brought on 18 February 2009 - France v Commission

(Case T-74/09)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Applicant: French Republic (represented by: G. de Bergues and B. Cabouat, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

Annul Commission Decision 2008/960/EC of 8 December 2008 excluding from Community financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and under the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) inasmuch as it excludes certain expenditure incurred by the French Republic in favour of fruit and vegetables producer organisations for the financial years 2005 and 2006;

Order the Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

By the present action, the applicant seeks the annulment of Commission Decision 2008/960/EC of 8 December 2008 excluding from Community financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and under the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) inasmuch as it excludes, for the financial years 2005 and 2006, certain expenditure incurred by the French Republic.

In support of its action the applicant relies on two pleas in law alleging:

misinterpretation and misapplication of Article 11(2)(d) of Regulation No 2200/96¹ in so far as, contrary to what the Commission found, the French Government satisfies the conditions laid down by that provision since every producer has the necessary material and, in accordance with the objective of economic effectiveness pursued by that regulation, it may, in certain circumstances, be more appropriate for each producer to hold the necessary material than to use a single sorting, storage and packaging centre provided by the producer organisation;

misinterpretation and misapplication of Article 11(1)(c), point 3, of Regulation No 2200/96 in so far as the Commission was wrong to take the view that the French Government had not complied with the conditions of that provision, which provides that the rules of association of producer organisations require producer members to market their entire production through the producer organisation although the French legislation provides for producer organisations to play an active role in the marketing of products and the fixing of selling prices.

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¹ - Council Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 of 28 October 1996 on the common organisation of the market in fruit and vegetables (OJ 1996 L 297, p. 1).