ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE SIXTH CHAMBER OF
THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
10 December 2008 (*)
(Removal from the register)
In Case T-56/08,
Stichting IEA Secretariaat Nederland (IEA), established in Den Haag (Netherlands),
Educational Testing Service Global BV (ETS-Europe), established in Amsterdam (Netherlands),
Deutsches Institut für Internationale Pädagogische Forschung, established in Frankfurt am Main (Germany),
Institut zur Qualitätsentwicklung im Bildungswesen (IQB), established in Berlin (Germany),
represented by E. Morgan de Rivery and S. Thibault-Liger, lawyers,
applicants,
v
Commission of the European Communities, represented by
B. Nunzio and E. Manhaeve, acting as Agents, assisted by P. Wytinck, lawyer,
defendant,
APPLICATION for annulment of the Commission decision of
23 November 2007 rejecting the offer submitted by the applicants in the context of a call for tender concerning an European survey on language competences (OJ 2007 S 61-074161), and of the decision to award the contract to another tenderer.
1 By letter lodged at the Registry of the Court of First Instance on
10 November 2008, the applicants informed the Court in accordance with Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance that they wished to discontinue proceedings.
2 By letter lodged at the Registry of the Court on 19 November 2008, the defendant informed the Court that it had no objections to raise concerning the discontinuance of the proceedings. The defendant requested that, pursuant to Article 87(5) of the Rules of Procedure, the applicants be ordered to bear the costs.
3 The first subparagraph of Article 87(5) of the Rules of Procedure provides that a party who discontinues or withdraws from proceedings shall be ordered to pay the costs if they have been applied for in the observations of the other party on the discontinuance. In the present case, the defendant has requested that the costs of the proceedings be borne by the applicants. The applicants made no application in relation to costs.
4 The case will therefore be removed from the register and the applicants shall be ordered to pay the costs.
On those grounds,
THE PRESIDENT OF THE SIXTH CHAMBER OF
THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
hereby orders:
1. Case T-56/08 is removed from the register of the Court of First Instance.
2. The applicants shall bear the costs.
Luxembourg, 10 December 2008.