Order — ECLI:EU:T:2004:228
Date: 2004-07-08
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Third Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Economic, social and territorial cohesion;European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Concepts: Applications by natural or legal persons
Procedure: Action for annulment - inadmissible
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Order Actions for annulment – Natural or legal persons – Measures of direct and individual concern to them – Commission decision addressed to a Member State definitively closing financial assistance from the European Regional Development Fund – Action brought by a regional authority – Not directly concerned – Inadmissibility (Art. 230, fourth para., EC) In the present case, since the contested decision embodied the Commission’s refusal to extend the time-limit for the submission of applications for final payment and definitively closed the disputed assistance on the basis of the expenditure incurred by 31 December 1997 in respect of works completed by 5 September 2002, it excluded any ERDF payment by way of the disputed assistance in respect of expenditure which was either implemented after 31 December 1997 or related to works not completed by 5 September 2002, such expenditure being thereby rendered ineligible for that assistance. In that situation, the contested decision could be regarded as having directly affected the applicant’s legal situation only if, by virtue of that decision, and without the Italian Republic’s having had any discretion in that regard, that applicant had, on the one hand, been deprived of payment of the withdrawn amounts corresponding to sums not yet received from the ERDF by way of the disputed assistance and relating to expenditure which had become ineligible and was, on the other hand, obliged to refund the amounts unduly paid corresponding to sums already received by way of that assistance and intended for the implementation of expenditure which had become ineligible. However, the Court has already held that no such consequences derive either from a Commission decision terminating ERDF financial assistance or from any other provision of Community law intended to govern the effect of such a decision. In those circumstances, reimbursement of the Community funds paid to the applicant would be the direct consequence, not of the contested decision, but of the action which would be taken for that purpose by the Italian Republic on the basis of national legislation in order to fulfil obligations under the Community rules on the subject. (see paras 54, 57-58, 70)