26.10.2020

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 359/11

(Case T-537/20)

(2020/C 359/15)

Language of the case: Lithuanian

Parties

Applicant: Republic of Lithuania, represented by R. Dzikovič and K. Dieninis

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the General Court should:

—annul the contested decision (1) in so far as it is addressed to the Republic of Lithuania and relates to the ‘Early Retirement’ measure (measure 113);

—order the Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on one plea in law. It claims that the Commission, when adopting the contested decision, by which it imposed on Lithuania a correction of EUR 2 186 447,97 on the ground of a weakness of key controls, breached Article 52(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, (2) and Articles 34(6) and 35(1) of Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 (3) and failed to comply with the principle of proportionality and the duty to cooperate.

The Commission, when determining the scale of the non-compliance, the nature of the infringement and the financial harm caused to the European Union, applied to Lithuania a flat-rate correction, although ex post checks were carried out by the Lithuanian authorities which were based on criteria which had been improved in the light of the judgment of the General Court of the European Union in Case T-508/15, Republic of Lithuania v Commission, the results led to an accurate estimation of the actual harm caused to EU funds, and the scale of the non-compliance was so small that the Commission was entirely able to discontinue the investigation.

Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/859 of 16 June 2020 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) (OJ 2020 L 195, p. 59).

Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 352/78, (EC) No 165/94, (EC) No 2799/98, (EC) No 814/2000, (EC) No 1290/2005 and (EC) No 485/2008 (OJ 2013 L 347, p. 549).

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 of 6 August 2014 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to paying agencies and other bodies, financial management, clearance of accounts, rules on checks, securities and transparency (OJ 2014 L 255, p. 59).