Case T-444/22: Judgment of the General Court of 4 October 2023 — HB v Commission (Public service contracts — Provision of technical assistance services to the High Judicial Council and to the Ukrainian authorities — Payment of a debt by way of out-of-court set-off — Legal basis — Competence of the author of the act — Whether the claim is certain and of a fixed amount — Non-contractual liability)
Date: 2023-10-04
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: Ukraine, claim, debt, interest, legal basis, powers of the institutions (EU), provision of services, services contract, technical cooperation








C_202300980EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
Series C













C/2023/980


27.11.2023





Judgment of the General Court of 4 October 2023 — HB v Commission
(Case T-444/22) (1)

(Public service contracts - Provision of technical assistance services to the High Judicial Council and to the Ukrainian authorities - Payment of a debt by way of out-of-court set-off - Legal basis - Competence of the author of the act - Whether the claim is certain and of a fixed amount - Non-contractual liability)
(C/2023/980)
Language of the case: French

Parties


Applicant: HB (Brussels, Belgium) (represented by: L. Levi, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: J. Estrada de Solà, acting as Agent)

Re:

By its action, the applicant seeks, first, on the basis of Article 263 TFEU, the annulment of the decision of the European Commission of 13 May 2022, notified on 16 May 2022, by which the Commission offset the applicant’s claim against it in respect of the costs which the Commission had been ordered to pay by the judgments of 21 December 2021, HB v Commission (T-795/19, not published, under appeal, EU:T:2021:917), and of 21 December 2021, HB v Commission (T-796/19, not published, under appeal, EU:T:2021:918), and the claim of a principal amount of EUR 1 197 055,86 which the Commission states that it has against the applicant by virtue of the recovery decision of 15 October 2019 in respect of the CARDS/2008/166-429 contract and, second, on the basis of Article 268 TFEU, that the Commission be ordered to pay compensation for the material damage it claims to have suffered, amounting to EUR 19 904,76, together with default interest at the rate applied by the European Central Bank (ECB), plus 7 percentage points, as compensation for the damage it claims to have suffered as a result of the adoption of that decision.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1.


Annuls the decision of the European Commission of 13 May 2022 by which the Commission offset, on the one hand, HB’s claim against it in respect of the costs which the Commission was ordered to pay by the judgments of 21 December 2021, HB v Commission (T-795/19), and of 21 December 2021, HB v Commission (T-796/19), and, on the other hand, the claim of a principal amount of EUR 1 197 055,86 which the Commission states that it has against HB by virtue of the recovery decision of 15 October 2019 in respect of the CARDS/2008/166-429 contract;










2.


Dismisses the action as to the remainder;










3.


Orders HB and the Commission to each bear their own costs.






(1)  
            OJ C 359, 19.9.2022.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2023/980/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)