Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2019:137
Date: 2019-03-05
Language of the case: English

summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based — Application containing no precise indication of the legal basis of the action or argument developing the pleas raised — Inadmissibility — Development at the reply stage — Irrelevant (Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 21, first para.; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 76(d)) (see paras 32, 35) 3. Acts of the institutions — Statement of reasons — Obligation — Scope — Decision, in the procedure for the award of a public service contract, not to accept a tender — Assessment having regard to the information at the applicant’s disposal at the time the action was brought — Information provided to the applicant not clearly showing the reasons for rejecting the tender and not sufficiently explaining the characteristics and advantages of the tender accepted — Insufficient statement of reasons (Art. 296 TFEU; European Parliament and Council Regulation No 966/2012, Art. 113(2)) (see paras 41, 49, 50) 4. EU public contracts — Conclusion of a contract following a call for tenders — Discretion of the institutions — Judicial review — Limits (see para. 53) 5. EU law — Principles — Proportionality — Scope — Discretion of the EU legislature — Judicial review — Limits (Art. 5(4) TEU) (see para. 68) 6. EU public contracts — Tender procedure — Duty to comply with the principles of equal treatment of tenderers and transparency — Scope — No obligation to specify the minimum number of tenderers (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 966/2012, Arts 102(1), 112(1) and 114) (see paras 71, 83, 84) 7. Non-contractual liability — Conditions — Unlawfulness — Injury — Causal link — One of those conditions not met — Action dismissed in its entirety (Art. 340, second para. TFEU) (see paras 89, 91) Re: Application (i) under Article 263 TFEU for annulment of the decision of the EIGE of 8 May 2017 rejecting the tender submitted by the applicant in procurement procedure EIGE/2017/OPER/04 and the decisions selecting as successful the tender submitted by Company Y and awarding that contract to it, (ii) under Article 268 TFEU for an award of damages in respect of those decisions and (iii) in the alternative, for compensation for irregularities in the award of that contract. Operative part The Court: 1. Declares that there is no longer any need to rule on the decisions of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) of 8 May 2017 adopting the tender submitted by Company Y in the context of the EIGE/2017/OPER/04 tender procedure and awarding it that contract; 2. Annuls the decision of the EIGE of 8 May 2017 rejecting the tender which Eurosupport — Fineurop support Srl had submitted in the context of that procedure; 3. Dismisses the action as to the remainder; 4. Orders Eurosupport — Fineurop support to bear 25% of its own costs and the EIGE to bear its own costs and to pay 75% of the costs incurred by Eurosupport — Fineurop support.