Judgment of the General Court of 14 September 2017 – Università del Salento v Commission

(Case T-393/15) ¹

(Arbitration clause – General Programme ‘Fundamental Rights and Justice’ – Specific programme ‘Criminal Justice’ – Recovery of sums paid by the Commission under a grant agreement – Set-off of amounts owed – Partial reclassification of the action  – Application for a declaration that there is no contractual claim)

Language of the case: Italian

Parties

Applicant: Università del Salento (Lecce, Italy) (represented by: F. Vetrò, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: initially, L. Di Paolo, F. Moro, L. Cappelletti and O. Verheecke, and subsequently L. Di Paolo, F. Moro and O. Verheecke, acting as Agents)

Re:

First, application under Article 263 TFEU seeking (i) annulment of Commission Decision D/C4 – B.2 – 005817 of 4 May 2015, by which the applicant’s claim in respect of the implementation of a contract in a first project, Entice (Explaining the Nature of Technological Innovation in Chinese Enterprises), was set off against the applicant’s debt in respect of the implementation of a contract in a second project, entitled ‘Judicial Training and Research on EU crimes against environment and maritime pollution’; (ii) annulment of all other measures, preliminary to, consecutive to or, in any event, connected with that decision; and (iii) an order requiring the Commission to pay to the applicant the amounts owed to it for the implementation of the Entice project; and, secondly, application under Article 272 TFEU seeking a declaration that the debt claimed by the Commission in respect of the implementation of the second project is non-existent.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Dismisses the action;

Orders Università del Salento to pay the costs.

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¹ OJ C 311, 21.9.2015.