Action brought on 6 August 2021 – France v Commission
(Case T-475/21)
Language of the case: French
Parties
Applicant: French Republic (represented by: F. Alabrune, T. Stéhelin, A-L. Desjonquères and G. Bain, acting as Agents)
Defendant: European Commission
Form of order sought
The applicant claims that the Court should:
annul in part 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), in so far as it applies a correction amounting to EUR 45 869 990.19 in respect of the ‘Voluntary Coupled Support’ for the reasons ‘Mesure 24 – année de demande 2017 (année financière 2018)’ and ‘Mesure 24 – année de demande 2017 (année financière 2019)’ for the financial years 2018 and 2019;
order the Commission to pay the costs.
Pleas in law and main arguments
In support of the action, the applicant relies on a single plea in law against the contested decision.
According to the applicant, the Commission erred in law by misinterpreting Article 52(2) of Regulation No 1307/2013, 1 stating that legumes grown as part of a mixture including grasses could not be eligible for a voluntary coupled support scheme.
In the first place, Article 52(2) of Regulation No 1307/2013 permits Member States to set up coupled support schemes for all common and established practices in a Member State in the protein crops sector, which includes legumes grown for their high protein content.
In the second place, Article 52(2) of Regulation No 1307/2013 must be interpreted as meaning that the protein crops sector includes the practice, common in particular in France, of growing mixtures of fodder legumes and grasses in which the former are predominant.
Accordingly, the Commission erred in law in stating, when adopting the contested decision, that the growing of mixtures of fodder legumes and grasses in which the former are predominant cannot be eligible for the voluntary coupled support provided for by Article 52 of Regulation No 1307/2013.
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1 Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing rules for direct payments to farmers under support schemes within the framework of the common agricultural policy and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 637/2008 and Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 (OJ 2013 L 347, p. 608).