Action brought on 24 October 2013 – Spain v Commission

(Case T-561/13)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: Spain (represented by: N. Díaz Abad, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the General Court should:

annul in part the contested decision to the extent that it excludes the expenditure, amounting to EUR 757 968.97, incurred by Kingdom of Spain in the context of the ICDN (compensatory allowances for natural handicaps; CANH) aid of Galicia’s 2007-2013 Rural Development programme in respect of ‘natural handicaps’, and

order the Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The present action is brought against Commission Implementing Decision 2013/433/EU of 13 August 2013 on excluding from European Union financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), under the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

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

First plea in law, alleging infringement of Article 10(2) and (4) of Regulation No 1975/2006.

The applicant claims that the obligation to count animals during on-the-spot checks in respect of the CANH aid breaches the principle of the continuity of the livestock density criterion and the principle of equal treatment, and that the Commission wrongly interpreted the abovementioned provisions by finding that the Spanish system was not suitable for verifying compliance with the livestock density criterion.

Second plea in law, alleging infringement of Article 2(2) of Regulation No 1082/2003 and of Article 26(2)(b) of Regulation No 796/2004.

The applicant claims that the contested decision infringes the abovementioned provisions in that it imposes the obligation to carry out a count of animals during an on-the-spot check in order to verify the livestock density criterion.