Judgment_paragraph 177 · Federal Republic of Germany v Commission of the European Communities (C-54/95)

177It should be recalled here that, according to the case-law of the Court of Justice, the Member States must, in the first place, respect the obligation of general diligence in Article 5 of the Treaty, as specifically embodied in Article 8(1) and (2) of Regulation No 729/70 with regard to the financing of the common agricultural policy. That obligation implies that the Member States must take steps to rectify irregularities promptly. With the passage of time, recovery of sums wrongly paid is likely to become complicated or impossible for reasons such as the fact that undertakings may have ceased trading or accounting documents may have been lost (Case C-34/89 Italy v Commission [1990] ECR I-3603, paragraph 12).