Action brought on 4 December 2006 - Germany v Commission

(Case T-349/06)

Language of the case: German

Parties

Applicant: Federal Republic of Germany (represented by: M. Lumma, C. Schulze-Bahr and C. von Donat, lawyer)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

The Court is asked to:

annul Commission Decision C(2006) 4194 final of 25 September 2006 reducing the financial assistance from the ERDF granted by Commission Decision No C(95) 1736 of 27 July 1995 for the Operational Programme RESIDER North Rhine-Westphalia (ERDF No 49.02.10.036 / ARINCO No 94.DE.16.051);

order the Commission to pay the costs of the proceedings.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In the contested decision the Commission reduced the amount of financial assistance from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for the RESIDER-North Rhine-Westphalia Programme.

In support of its action the applicant claims infringement of Article 24 of Regulation 4253/88 ¹ since the requirements for a reduction are not met. In that context it claims, in particular, that the divergences from the indicative financing plan do not constitute a significant change to the programme.

Even if there were a significant change to the programme, the applicant submits that the Commission gave prior consent in the form of its 'Guidelines for the financial closure of operational measures (1994 to 1999) of the Structural Funds' (SEC (1999) 1316).

Assuming that the requirements for a reduction are met, the applicant claims that the defendant did not make use of its discretionary power in relation to the specific programme. In the applicant's view the Commission should have weighed up whether a reduction of the ERDF assistance was proportionate.

Finally, the contested decision infringes the principle of sound administration in that it required the applicant to bring a new action against the decision, against which an action was already pending.

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¹ - Council Regulation (EEC) No 4253/88 of 19 December 1988, laying down provisions for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 2052/88 as regards coordination of the activities of the different Structural Funds between themselves and with the operations of the European Investment Bank and the other existing financial instruments (OJ 1988 L 374 of 31.12.1988, p. 1).