Action brought on 29 July 2013 – Gossio v Council

(Case T-406/13)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Applicant: Marcel Gossio (Casablanca, Morocco) (represented by: S. Zokou, lawyer)

Defendant: Council of the European Union

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the General Court should:

annul:

Council Decision 2010/656/CFSP and Regulation (EC) No 560/2005 and Council Implementing Decision 2012/144/CFSP of 8 March 2012 establishing restrictive measures because of the situation in Côte d’Ivoire in so far as they relate to and affect the applicant;

the decision of 17 May 2013 confirming and prolonging the above mentioned restrictive measures in so far as the consequence is that the applicant must continue to be named among the persons and entities listed in Annex II to Decision 2010/656/CFSP and Annex IA to Regulation (EC) No 560/2005 concerning restrictive measures established in view of the situation in Côte d’Ivoire.

Pleas in law and main arguments

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

First plea: misuse of powers and manifest error of assessment, in that:

the allegations as to what the applicant has done have no objective basis and are supported by no tangible evidence;

it is impossible to establish an objective connection between the reasons relied on to justify the restrictive measures imposed on the applicant and the general situation in Côte d’Ivoire;

the initial legal bases for the restrictive measures imposed on the applicant are incompatible with the most recent grounds relied on to justify those measures;

the Council’s decisions are a misuse of procedure or abuse of power.

2    Second plea: infringement of the applicant’s fundamental rights and in particular his right to the presumption of innocence, his right to carry on business, his right of property, the principle of proportionality, the right to respect for private and family life and the right not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.