Judgment of the General Court (Ninth Chamber) of 1 October 2014 —
Italy v Commission(Case T‑256/13)
Social policy — Community action programmes in the field of youth — Partial reimbursement of the funding paid — Ineligibility of certain sums — Exceeding of the upper limit provided for in respect of a category of actions — Implementation by the national agencies of procedures to recover the sums wrongly used from the final beneficiaries
1.                     Actions for annulment — Admissibility — Action dismissed on the merits without ruling on admissibility — Discretion of the Courts of the Union (Art. 263 TFEU) (see para. 39)
2.                     Education, professional training, youth and sport — Youth action programme — Adoption of a programme guide by the Commission implementing that action programme — Establishment of the criteria for benefiting from funds — Binding effect of the programme guide — Non-compliance with the ceiling attached to a certain category of actions within the programme in order to ensure efficient use of the funds granted — Not permissible — Maximum amount of financing for all the actions in the programme not exceeded — Irrelevant (European Parliament and Council Decision No 1719/2006, Art. 10; Commission Decisions C(2006) 4918 and C(2007) 1807, Arts 4 and 5) (see paras 45-51)
3.                     Education, professional training, youth and sport — Youth action programme — Grant of financing by the Commission — Sums improperly used by the final beneficiaries — Obligation of national agencies rigorously to implement procedures for recovering those sums — Waiver of recovery — Obligation to state reasons and justify the waiver by proof that the above-mentioned procedures have been complied with (European Parliament and Council Decision 1031/2000) (see paras 60-75)
Re:
APPLICATION for annulment, first, of the letter of the Commission Ares (2013) 237719 of 22 February 2013, addressed to the Agenzia nazionale per i giovani (National Youth Agency, Italy), which announces the issue of a debit note in respect of a total amount of EUR 1 486 485.90, in so far as that figure includes an amount of EUR 52 036.24 for expenses borne in respect of training activities relating to the European Voluntary Service and an amount of EUR 183 729.72, in respect of sums not recovered by the Agenzia nazionale per i giovani from the final beneficiaries as regards the period from 2000 to 2004, and, secondly, of the letter of the Commission Ares (2013) 267064 of 28 February 2013, addressed to the Dipartimento della gioventù e del servizio civile nazionale (Department for Youth and the national civil service, Italy), communicating the final evaluation conclusions from the declaration of assurance and the conclusions on the annual report of that agency in respect of 2011.
Operative part
The Court:
1.
Dismisses the action;
2.
Orders the Italian Republic to pay the costs.