Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2017:614
Date: 2017-07-26
Language of the case: Italian
Subject matter: Privileges and immunities
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber), 30 May 2018 1. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Jurisdiction of the national court — Necessity of a question referred and relevance of the questions raised — Assessment by the national court (Art. 267 TFEU) 2. Privileges and immunities of the European Union — Attachment proceedings against a third party — Proceedings against a national authority to attach sums deriving from EU financial assistance — Need for the Court's authorisation — None (Protocol No 7 to the TEU and to the TFEU, Art. 1) 1. See the text of the decision. (see paras 31, 32) 2. The last sentence of Article 1 of Protocol (No 7) on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union must be interpreted as meaning that prior authorisation from the Court is not necessary when a third party initiates attachment proceedings seeking to attach a claim against a Member State body that owes a corresponding debt to the debtor of the third party where that debtor is a beneficiary of funds granted for the purpose of implementing projects co-financed by the European Social Fund. Thus, payments made by the Commission to the Member States under the Funds entail a transfer of assets from the EU budget to the budgets of the Member States. However, since those assets are withdrawn from the EU budget and transferred to the Member States, they cannot be regarded, once paid out, as assets of the European Union, within the meaning of the last sentence of Article 1 of the Protocol. The fact that such assets are designated for the implementation of EU policies is irrelevant in that regard. As the Advocate General stated, in essence, in point 44 of her Opinion, the relationship between the co-financing provided by the European Union, under the ESF, and the implementation of a given project is too indirect for it to be concluded that the sums that the authorities of Member States owe to the beneficiaries for implementing those projects constitute EU assets and, accordingly, must be covered by the protection against attachment afforded to assets of the European Union under the last sentence of Article 1 of the Protocol so as to prevent interference with the functioning and independence of the European Union. (see paras 39-41, 45, 46, operative part)