8.9.2007   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 211/37

Action brought on 28 June 2007 — Spain v Commission

(Case T-227/07)

(2007/C 211/72)

Language of the proceedings: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: Kingdom of Spain (represented by: M. Muñoz Pérez)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

Forms of order sought

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declare void Commission Decision 2007/243/EC of 18 April 2007 excluding from Community financing certain expenditure incurred by the Member States under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), in so far as it forms the subject-matter of the present action and,

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order the Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The Kingdom of Spain disputes the contested decision in so far as it provides for a financial correction of the costs incurred in the context of production aid for products processed from tomatoes in the financial years 2003 and 2004, in the amount of EUR 4 090 316,46.

In support of its claims, the applicant alleges:

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infringement of Articles 2 and 3 of Regulation No 729/70 (1) and of Article 2 of Regulation No 1258/1999 (2) given the non-existence of the irregularities relied on by the Commission relating, in particular, to the checks of primary materials at the delivery points, that is to say, the absence of nightly checks by the inspectors of the Extremadura Autonomous Community, failure to retain proof of weighing, and ‘en masse’ signature of delivery notes;

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in the alternative, breach of the principle of proportionality, given that the Commission decided to impose a financial correction on the entire quantity of tomatoes delivered, even though the actual irregularity on which the correction is based would concern only those quantities delivered at night, which means that the corrections could have been applied only to those quantities.

(1)  Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of the Council of 21 April 1970 on the financing of the common agricultural policy (OJ English Special Edition 1970 (I), p. 218).

(2)  Council Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 of 17 May 1999 on the financing of the common agricultural policy (OJ L, 26.6.1999, 160, p. 103).