Action brought on 29 August 2015 — Hellenic Republic v Commission

(Case T-506/15)

Language of the case: Greek

Parties

Applicant: Hellenic Republic (represented by: G. Κanellopoulos, Ε. Leftheriotou, O. Τsircinidou and Α.-Ε. Vasilopoulou)

Defendant: European Comm

cultural Guarantee Fu

nd (EAGF) and under the European Agricultural Fund f

or Rural Development (EAFRD) (notified under document C(2015) 4076) ¹ ’, to the extent that there is excluded from European Union financing expenditure which was incurred in the area of decoupled direct aid in the 2009, 2010 and 2011 claim years and in the area of cross-compliance in the 2011 claim year, and by reason of the Commission’s failure to repay to the Hellenic Republic the sum of EUR 10 460 620.42, on the basis of the judgment of the General Court of 6 November 2014 in Case Τ-632/11 Greece v Commission, in accordance with the facts as set out in the application and the pleadings set out in the pleas of law in support of annulment; andorder the Commission to pay the costs.Pleas in law and main argumentsIn support of the action, the applicant relies on six pleas in law. In particular, with respect to the financial correction which is imposed within the framework of the decoupled direct aid scheme, the Hellenic Republic relies on four pleas in support of annulment.The first plea in support of annulment is raised with respect to the 25% flat-rate correction imposed for weaknesses in the definition and checking of permanent pastures for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 claim years, based on the misinterpretation and misapplication of the provision

s of Article 2(2) of Regulation No 796/2004  (and the successor Article 2(c)

of Regulation No 1120/2009  ).The second plea in support of ann

ulment is also raised with respect to the 25% flat-rate correction imposed for weaknesses

in the definition and checking of permanent pastures for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 claim years, based on the misinterpretation and misapplication of the guidelines, with respect to whether the precon