Judgment of the General Court (First Chamber) of 8 September 2015 —
Amitié v Commission
(Case T‑234/12)
Arbitration clause — Grant — Financial aid — Suspension of payment — Claim for reimbursement of the declared costs — Damages — Interest on late payment — Debit note — Contractual liability — Counterclaim
1.                     Judicial proceedings — General Court seised under an arbitration clause — Jurisdiction of the General Court to hear a counterclaim for payment — Basis (Arts 256(1) TFEU and 272 TFEU) (see para. 71)
2.                     Judicial proceedings — Application initiating proceedings — Subject-matter of the dispute — Delimitation — Alteration once proceedings have been started — Prohibition (Rules of Procedure of the General Court (1991), Arts 44(1), and 48(2)) (see paras 84-88, 95-97)
3.                     Judicial proceedings — Introduction of new pleas during the proceedings — Pleas formulated at the reply stage seeking partial dismissal of a counterclaim formulated at the defence stage — Introduction out of time — None (see paras 90, 91)
4.                     Judicial proceedings — Subject-matter of the dispute — Alteration once proceedings have been started — Prohibition — Pleas not formally repeated at the reply stage because of a clerical error made at the time of their modification — No intention to renounce the pleas — Reintroduction of the pleas in the document adapting them, designed to correct a clerical error made at the reply stage — Admissibility (see paras 102-105)
5.                     Judicial proceedings — Conditions for admissibility of actions – Pleas seeking a declaration of executory force for a judgment to be delivered by the General court — Pleas devoid of purpose — Inadmissibility (Art. 278 TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 60) (see paras 109, 110)
6.                     EU budget — EU financial assistance — Obligation of the beneficiary to comply with the conditions for grant of the aid — Procedure brought by the Commission to recover advances paid in the context of the aid — Determination of the obligations in question — Burden of proof (see paras 115-119, 143-145)
7.                     EU budget — EU financial assistance — Obligation of the beneficiary to comply with the conditions for grant of the aid — Account taken of the final conclusions of an audit — Obligation to comply with the rules on the collection of evidence in the context of the audit — No infringement of the audited agreements (see paras 135-140)
8.                     EU budget — EU financial assistance — Obligation of the beneficiary to comply with the conditions for grant of the aid — Financing covering only expenses actually incurred — No proof of the reality of the expenses declared — Ineligible expenses — Proper technical implementation of projects forming the subject-matter of EU financial assistance — Irrelevant (Art. 317 TFEU) (see paras 146, 147, 152, 153)
9.                     EU budget — EU financial assistance — Obligation of the beneficiary to comply with the conditions for grant of the aid — Procedure brought by the Commission to recover advances paid in the context of the aid — Obligation to comply with the principles of equal treatment — Non-comparable situations — No discrimination (see paras 155-158, 210)
10.                     EU budget — EU financial assistance — Obligation of the beneficiary to comply with the conditions for grant of the aid — Financing covering only expenses actually incurred — Proof of the reality of the expenses declared — Co-contractor simultaneously enjoying several assistance measures — Non-compliance with obligation to keep accounts enabling costs reported in the financial statements concerning each agreement for financial assistance to be directly compared with those recorded in the overall accounts — Ineligible expenses (see paras 163-165, 171-181)
11.                     EU budget — EU financial assistance — Obligation of the beneficiary to comply with the conditions for grant of the aid — Financing covering only expenses actually incurred — Proof of the reality of the expenses declared — Staff costs — Non-compliance with obligation to produce reliable time-sheets in order to justify the staff costs declared by way of implementation of the agreements — Ineligible expenses — Consequence — Staff travel costs ineligible (see paras 194-208, 211, 212, 216-219)
12.                     Judicial proceedings — General Court seised under an arbitration clause — Application for repayment of procedural costs based on the EU being contractually liable — No causal link between the damage and the conduct of the institution — Dismissal of the claim for repayment (see paras 303-307)
Re:
APPLICATION under Article 272 TFEU and the first paragraph of Article 340 TFEU for, in the first place, a declaration (i) that the amounts received by the applicant under a grant agreement and two financial aid agreements concluded between the applicant and the European Community, represented by the Commission, and also the financial penalty and interest on late payment, reimbursement or payment of which the Commission claims from the applicant on the basis of the final findings of a financial audit, are not payable or, at least, not payable in full; (ii) that the Commission’s right to extrapolate the final audit findings to another grant agreement is time-barred; and (iii) that the Commission engaged the contractual liability of the European Union by suspending, on the basis of the preliminary financial audit findings, payment of the amounts payable to the applicant under two other grant agreements; and, in the second place, an order that the Commission pay to the applicant (i) the amounts remaining payable to it under the grant agreements performance of which was suspended and under another financial aid agreement, together with late payment interest; and (ii) damages to make good the loss suffered by the applicant owing to the abusive exercise by the Commission of the rights which it derived from the financial aid or grant agreements subject to the financial audit and the grant agreements the performance of which was suspended, following that audit.
Operative part
The Court:
1.
Declares that there is no need to give a ruling on the head of claim of Amitié Srl requesting the Court to take note of the fact that the European Commission abandoned its challenge to the amounts which remained payable to the applicant for the implementation of the grant agreements references ECP-2007-DILI 517005, relating to the Athena (Access to cultural heritage networks across Europe) action, and ECP-2008-DILI 538025, relating to the Judaica Europeana (Jewish urban digital European integrated cultural archive) action;
2.
Dismisses the action as to the remainder;
3.
Orders Amitié to pay to the Commission (i) a sum of EUR 50 458.23, with interest on late payment at the rate of 4.5% per annum from 6 April 2012 and until full payment of that sum, (ii) a sum of EUR 261 947.36, with interest on late payment at the rate of 4.25% per annum from 28 December 2012 and until full payment of that sum, (iii) a sum of EUR 358 712.35, with interest on late payment at the rate of 4.5% per annum from 8 May 2012 and until full payment of that sum, and (iv) a sum of EUR 5 045.82, with interest on late payment at the rate of 4.5% per annum from 23 June 2012 and until full payment of that sum;
4.
Orders Amitié to bear its own costs and to pay four fifths of the costs of the Commission;
5.
Orders the Commission to bear one fifth of its own costs.