Case T-425/05: Action brought on  5 December 2005  — Mediocurso — Estabelecimento de Ensino Particular SA v Commission of the European Communities
Date: 2006-02-25
Institutions: Court of First Instance
Subjects: EU financing arrangements, European Commission, European Social Fund, action for annulment (EU), private education, vocational training

25.2.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 48/37

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— annul the defendant's decision of 31 January 2005;

— order the defendant to pay all the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicant was an official of the Commission in grade B*7.
After passing the external competition COM/A/3/02, he was
appointed by the contested decision to an administrator post in
grade A*6.

By his action, the applicant disputes his classification, submit-
ting that he should have been classified in one of the grades
A*8, A*9 or A*10. He also disputes the loss of all his promo-
tion points, constituting his ‘rucksack’, following his reclassifi-
cation.

In support of his action, the applicant claims infringement of
Article 2(2) of Annex XIII to the Staff Regulations, which he
considers applicable to his situation, instead of Article 5(2) of
In addition, he
that annex, which the Commission applied.
pleads breach of
legitimate
expectations, protection of acquired rights and equal treatment
between officials.

the principles of protection of

Action brought on 5 December 2005 — Mediocurso —
Estabelecimento de Ensino Particular SA v Commission of
the European Communities

(Case T-425/05)

(2006/C 48/73)

Language of the case: Portuguese

Parties

Applicant(s): Mediocurso — Estabelecimento de Ensino Particu-
(represented by: Carlos Botelho
lar, SA (Lisbon, Portugal)
Moniz and Eduardo Maia Cadete, lawyers)

Defendant(s): Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— order joined to this case the administrative proceedings
relating to Dossier FSE 890588/P1 under way in the

Commission of the European Communities and the Depart-
ment for European Social Fund Affairs, part of the Minis-
tério para a Qulificação e o Emprego (Ministry for Qualifi-
the Portuguese Republic,
cations and Employment) of
which department is situated at 72 Av. Almirante Reis (3rd
floor), P-1100, Lisbon, Portugal;

— annul the decision of the Commission of the European
Communities of 13 September 2005 ‘Reducing the amount
of assistance granted by the European Social Fund to the
entity “Mediocurso — Estabelecimento de Ensino particular,
Lda”, in accordance with Commission Decision C (89) 0570
of 22 March 1989 in connection with Project No 890588
P1’, with the reference ‘C(2005) 3557’;

— order the defendant to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicant
is a commercial company with the object,
according to its memorandum and articles of association, of
‘providing training and technical specialisation courses and
drawing up projects, studies, advice on matters of company
economics, tax, accountancy and management and operation’.
In 1988 it presented to the European Social Fund, through the
Department for European Social Fund Affairs, various applica-
tions for assistance relating to training projects that it said it
would carry out during 1989,
including the application for
assistance at issue in these proceedings which gave rise to File
890588 P1. The application for assistance in that file was
approved and the vocational training programmes to which it
related were implemented, with the result that the applicant
presented the corresponding request for final payment.

The act challenged by the applicant is the decision adopted by
the Commission following the presentation of the claim for
final payment and various procedural documents.

The applicant claims that the Commission has infringed essen-
tial procedural requirements, having regard to the inadequacy
of the reasons given for the contested decision.

It also alleges breach of the principles of legal certainty and of
the protection of
in so far as the
legitimate expectations,
contested act is incompatible, in a manner disadvantageous to
the applicant, with the earlier act certifying the accuracy of the
facts and accounts given by the applicant in the final payment
application it had submitted. Last, it alleges a manifest error in
the assessment of the documentary evidence of expenditure put
forward by Mediocurso and breach of the principle of propor-
tionality, in that the contested decision does not deal with the
grounds of fact and law relied on in support of the reduction
of assistance which is its subject-matter.