Action brought on 29 December 2023 – Fincantieri NexTech v Commission

(Case T-1191/23)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Fincantieri NexTech SpA (Milan, Italy) (represented by: F. Di Gianni, A. Scalini and I. Salvatore, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

Annul the decision of the Commission served on 20 October 2023 (ref. Ares(2023)7165725), rejecting proposal no. 101121451 – ‘NESSOS’ (Networked Sonars System Of Systems) in relation to call EDF-2022-RA and confirming the conclusions in the Evaluation Summary Report of 23 June 2023;

Order the Commission to pay the costs of the proceeding.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on three pleas in law.

First plea in law, alleging that the Commission committed a manifest error of assessment in evaluating the interplay between the NESSOS and SWAT-SHOAL projects, insofar as the Commission held them interdependent to one other, whereas they are autonomous and self-standing.

Second plea in law, alleging that the Commission committed a manifest error of assessment in evaluating the applicant’s proposal under Criterion 5 (Creation of cross-border cooperation), insofar as the Commission’s decision in that regard is illogical and contradictory.

Third plea in law, alleging that the Commission violated Article 12(f) of Regulation (EU) 2021/697, ¹ in assessing the proposal on the basis of Criterion 6 (Quality and efficiency of implementation), insofar as the Commission attributed relevance to the degree of participation of SMEs in the project under that criterion, whereas it should have played no role in that assessment.

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¹ Regulation (EU) 2021/697 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2021 establishing the European Defence Fund and repealing Regulation (EU) 2018/1092 (OJ 2021 L 170, p. 149).