Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:1999:239
Date: 1999-09-29
Language of the case: Portuguese
Court formation: Fourth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: European Social Fund (ESF)
Concepts: Statement of reasons;European Social Fund
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Portugal

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Social policy — European Social Fund — Financial assistance for vocational train­
ing — Decision reducing assistance initially granted — Reduction on account of failure 
to comply with the conditions laid down in the decision of approval — Whether in 
breach of the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations — No such breach 
(Council Regulation No 2950/83, Art. 6(1)) 
2. Acts of the institutions — Statement of reasons — Obligation — Scope — Commis­
sion decision reducing, on a proposal from a Member State, assistance from the 
European Social Fund for vocational training 
(EC Treaty, Art. 190 (now Art. 253 EC)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE T-126/97 
1. It is clear from Article 6(1) of Regula­
tion No 2950/83 that the grant of 
funding from the European Social Fund 
(ESF) depends on the recipient's com­
pliance with the conditions laid down 
by the Commission in the decision of 
approval. Where those conditions are 
not satisfied, the recipient cannot, 
relying on the principle of protection 
of legitimate expectations, expect pay­
ment in full of the amount granted in 
that decision. 
Accordingly, an undertaking which has 
manifestly failed to comply with the 
rules in force cannot rely on that 
principle in order to contest the law­
fulness of a Commission decision. The 
Commission has the power to reduce 
ESF financial assistance on the ground 
that the conditions laid down in the 
decision of approval have been 
infringed. 
2. The purpose of the obligation, laid 
down in Article 190 of the Treaty (now 
Article 253 EC), to state the reasons on 
which an individual decision is based is 
to enable the Community judicature to 
review the legality of the decision and 
to provide the person concerned with 
sufficient information to make it pos­
sible to ascertain whether the decision 
is well founded or whether it is vitiated 
by a defect which may permit its 
legality to be contested. The extent of 
that obligation depends on the nature 
of the measure in question and on the 
context in which it was adopted. 
A decision reducing the amount of ESF 
assistance initially granted must, in 
view of the serious consequences for 
the recipient, either clearly incorporate 
the grounds justifying that reduction 
or — in view of the fact that the grant 
of ESF financial assistance is based on 
close collaboration between the Com­
mission and the Member States — refer 
with sufficient clarity to a measure of 
the competent national authorities in 
the Member State concerned, in which 
the reasons for such a reduction are 
clearly set out. 
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