ECJ Own resources of the European communities – establishment and making available by the member states – request by the commission for advance payment – binding on the member states (council regulation no 2891/77, art. 10 (2) and art. 12 (2)) 2. Own resources of the European communities – establishment and making available by the member states – crediting the commission’s account – delay in crediting amounts – obligation to pay default interest – error of a member state as to the extent of its obligations – no effect (council regulation no 2891/77, art. 11)
1. In view of the autonomy conferred on the commission with regard to the management of own resources and of the allocation of tasks as between the commission and the member states under the system established by the decision of 21 April 1970 and regulation no 2891/77, the exercise of the power conferred on the commission by article 10 (2) of that regulation, if necessary, to invite the member states to bring forward by one month the entering of resources other than vat resources on the basis of the information available to them on the 15th of the same month cannot be dependent on the agreement of the various member states, for this would deprive article 10 (2) of its effectiveness. Since only the commission can assess whether it is necessary to bring forward the entering of own resources, the member states, which are responsible only for collecting the resources and making them available but not for their management, are under a duty to bring forward the entry of own resources as requested without expressing their agreement or disagreement.
That finding is not affected by the fact that article 12 (2) of that regulation gives the commission an alternative means of resolving any cash-flow problems, since it is for the commission alone to choose between the two alternatives.
2. The very wording of article 11 of regulation no 2891/77 shows that default interest is payable in respect of ‘any delay’ in crediting own resources to the commission’s account, regardless of the reason for the delay, and hence a member state cannot escape paying that interest by pleading that it was not satisfied that an invitation to bring forward the payment of own resources pursuant to article 10 (2) of the regulation was binding.
The rate of that default interest is set at a flat rate by article 11 with regard to all the member states at a level which cannot be varied according to the particular circumstances of each individual case.
Citations:
Case 93/85
Jurisdiction:
European
European
Updated: 15 October 2022; Ref: scu.134089