Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:133
Date: 1999-03-11
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Economic, social and territorial cohesion;Environment;Approximation of laws
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - successful
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
Economic and social cohesion — Projects relating to tourism and the environment — 
Grant of Community financial assistance — Evidence of interference from officials, likely 
to have an impact on the smooth running of a project funded by the Commission — Onus 
on the Commission to prove that the actions in question had no impact on the 
management of the project 
Where the recipient of funding for a project 
for the creation of an information network 
on ecological tourism in Europe provides 
evidence that Commission officials have 
interfered in the management of the project 
in a manner likely to have an impact on its 
smooth running, it is for the Commission to 
show that, notwithstanding the interference 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-433/97 Ρ 
in question, the recipient was still in a 
position to manage the project in a satis­
factory manner. The recipient cannot there­
fore be required to furnish proof that those 
actions made it impossible for it to engage 
in proper cooperation with its partners in 
the project. 
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