Action brought on 11 January 2013 - ANKO v Commission

(Case T-17/13)

Language of the case: Greek

Parties

Applicant: ANKO AE Antiprosopion, Emporiou kai Viomikhanias (Athens, Greece) (represented by: V. Christianos, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the General Court should:

declare that the applicant is under no obligation to repay as unduly paid the sum which the Commission paid to it in respect of the POCEMON project;

declare that the applicant is under no obligation to pay to the Commission liquidated damages in respect of the POCEMON project;

declare that the Commission is not entitled to offset the amount which it is obliged to pay to ANKO, and

order the Commission to pay the applicant's costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

This action relates to the liability of the Commission under grant agreement No 216088 for the carrying out of the project 'Point Of CarE MONitoring and Diagnostics for Autoimmune Diseases' (POCEMON), pursuant to Article 272 TFEU. In particular, the applicant maintains that although it performed its contractual obligations the Commission, contrary to the terms of the abovementioned agreement, the principle of good faith, the prohibition of abuse of rights and proportionality, sought the repayment of sums paid to ΑΝΚΟ. Further, the Commission carried out an offsetting of claims which were not certain, of a fixed amount and due.

For those reasons, the applicant maintains: first, that it is under no obligation to repay as unduly paid the whole of the sum which the Commission paid to it in respect of the POCEMON project; secondly, it is under no obligation to pay to the Commission liquidated damages in respect of the POCEMON project, and thirdly that the Commission is not entitled to offset against sums which it is obliged to pay to the applicant sums which are not certain, of a fixed amount and due.

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