Case T-507/14: Action brought on 1 July 2014  — Vidmar and Others v European Union
Date: 2014-07-01
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: Croatia, accession to the European Union, damages, indemnification, judicial reform








C_2014303EN.01004601.xml










8.9.2014   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 303/46





Action brought on 1 July 2014 — Vidmar and Others v European Union
(Case T-507/14)
2014/C 303/54
Language of the case: Croatian

Parties


Applicants: Vedran Vidmar (Zagreb, Croatia); Saša Čaldarević (Zagreb); Irena Glogovšek (Zagreb); Gordana Grancarić (Zagreb); Martina Grgec (Zagreb); Ines Grubišić (Vranjic, Croatia); Sunčica Horvat Peris (Karlovac, Croatia); Zlatko Ilak (Samobor, Croatia); Mirjana Jelavić (Virovitica, Croatia); Romuald Kantoci (Pregrada, Croatia); Svjetlana Klobučar (Zagreb); Ivan Kobaš (Županja, Croatia); Zlatko Kovačić (Sesvete, Croatia); Tihana Kušeta Šerić (Split, Croatia); Damir Lemaić (Zagreb); Željko Ljubičić (Solin, Croatia); Gordana Mahovac (Nova Gradiška, Croatia); Martina Majcen (Krapina, Croatia); Višnja Merdžo (Rijeka, Croatia); Tomislav Perić (Zagreb); Darko Radić (Zagreb); Damjan Saridžić (Zagreb); Darko Graf (Zagreb) (represented by: D. Graf, lawyer)

Defendant: European Union

Form of order sought

The applicants claim that the General Court should:






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By means of an interim measure, order the European Union to compensate, on the basis of Article 340(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, all of the material damage suffered by all the applicants during the period from 1 January 2012 to the time at which the applicants began to exercise the functions of Croatian bailiffs in accordance with Article 36(1) and Annex VII(1) of the Act of Accession, legally binding on all 28 signatory States of the Treaty of Accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union, including the Commission since 9 December 2011, as a result of the European Commission’s failure to fulfil its monitoring obligation under Article 36(1) and (2) of the Act of Accession, intended to ensure that the Republic of Croatia would establish the profession of bailiff from 1 January 2012, a commitment undertaken during the negotiations on the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union in the context of Chapter 23, ‘Justice and Fundamental Rights’, referred to in section 1 of Annex VII of the Act of Accession, ‘Specific commitments undertaken by the Republic of Croatia in the accession negotiations’, which states: ‘1. To continue to ensure effective implementation of its Judicial Reform Strategy and Action Plan’.










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Until the interim measure sought in the first indent has become definitive, suspend the discussions on the total amount of material damage in respect of which compensation is sought from the European Union by the applicants in the present action.










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After the interim measure sought in the first indent has become definitive, and after the oral hearing and the presentation of evidence relating to the determination of the total material damage in respect of which compensation is sought by the applicants in the present action, order the European Union to compensate each of the applicants for the material damaged suffered as a result of the Commission’s unlawful omission, referred to in the first subparagraph of the present action, namely, all of the actual loss (damnum emergens) and all of the loss of profit (lucrum cessans) suffered by the applicants during the period from 1 January 2012 to the date on which the Court makes the corresponding requests to the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Justice of the Republic of Croatia, amounting to EUR 6 00  000 for each calendar year and for each defendant, together with late payment interest of 12 % per annum, to be calculated:






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as regards the compensation for all of the actual loss, from 1 January 2012 until the date of actual payment;










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as regards the compensation for all of the loss of profit suffered by the applicants during 2012, from 1 January 2013 until the date of actual payment;










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as regards the compensation for all of the loss of profit suffered by the applicants during 2013, from 1 January 2014 until the date of actual payment;










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as regards the compensation for all of the loss of profit suffered by the applicants during 2014, from 1 January 2015 until the date of actual payment;














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After the interim measure sought in the first indent has become definitive, and after the oral hearing and the presentation of the appropriate evidence relating to the amount of that claim, order the European Commission to pay every one of the applicants the costs incurred in the present proceedings.





Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicants rely on pleas essentially the same as those relied on in Case T-109/14 Škugor and Others v European Union. (1)



(1)  OJ C 142, p. 38.