Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2003:67
Date: 2003-03-12
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Fisheries policy
Concepts: Common structural policy
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Fisheries — Common structural policy — Development of aquaculture and establish­
ment of protected marine areas — Community financial assistance — Commission's 
power to review — Decision to discontinue assistance — Simple administrative and 
management decision — Adoption by way of delegated authority — Lawfulness — 
Seriousness of the consequences for the beneficiary of assistance — Irrelevant 
(Council Regulation No 4028/86, Art. 44(1)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE T-254/99 
2. Fisheries — Common structural policy — Commission decision ordering discontinu­
ance of Community financial assistance — Procedural irregularity — Procedure 
which is not aimed at the protection of the rights and interests of the beneficiaries of 
assistance — Annulment of the decision — Not possible 
3. Fisheries — Common structural policy — Community financial assistance — Sale 
within the Community of the undertaking benefiting from assistance — Need for prior 
approval of the Commission — Beneficiary of assistance required to provide 
information and to act in good faith 
1. A decision to discontinue Community 
financial assistance adopted under 
Article 44 of Regulation No 4028/86 
on Community measures to improve 
and adapt structures in the fisheries 
and aquaculture sector in the context 
of the supervision of the implemen­
tation of a project for which the 
beneficiary had obtained aid, subject 
to certain conditions, must be deemed 
a measure of management or adminis­
tration of the aid scheme established by 
that regulation, and as such may be 
adopted under the system of delegated 
authority. The fact that the decision in 
question, which discontinues aid pre­
viously granted, may entail serious 
consequences for the beneficiary can­
not cast doubt on this assessment. 
(see para. 43) 
2. A procedural irregularity will, as a rule, 
entail the annulment of a decision in 
whole or in part only if it is shown that, 
in the absence of such irregularity, the 
contested decision might have been 
substantively different. Any breach of 
the internal procedure to be followed 
by the Commission in connection with 
a decision to discontinue Community 
financial assistance, which does not 
aim to protect the rights and interests 
of beneficiaries of aid, cannot be 
pleaded as a formal defect which may 
entail the annulment of the contested 
decision. 
(see para. 49) 
3. A transfer of ownership of the invest­
ments which have received Community 
aid is a fundamental change in the aid 
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MAJA v COMMISSION 
conditions in so far as the person 
carrying out the project is replaced. 
The Commission is therefore entitled to 
complain that the vendor company 
which benefited from the aid did not 
inform it or the national authorities of 
a sale which took place on a given date 
until the time of a second inspection 
carried out two years later. The failure 
to do so constitutes a breach of the 
obligation to provide information and 
to act in good faith, which is inherent 
in aid schemes and is essential for their 
effective functioning. 
(see paras 59-60) 
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