Judgment of the General Court of 8 September 2015 — Amitié v Commission
(Case T-234/12) 1
(Arbitration clause — Grant — Financial aid — Suspension of payment — Claim for reimbursement of the declared costs — Damages — Interest on late payment — Debit note — Contractual liability — Counterclaim)
Language of the case: English
Parties
Applicant: Amitié Srl (Bologna, Italy) (represented by: D. Bogaert, M. Picat and C. Siciliano, lawyers)
Defendant: European Commission (represented by: F. Moro and S. Delaude, acting as Agents, and initially by R. Van der Hout and A. Krämer, and subsequently by R. Van der Hout and A. Köhler, lawyers)
Re:
Application under Article 272 TFEU and the first paragraph of Article 340 TFEU for, in the first place, a declaration (i) that the amounts received by the applicant under a grant agreement and two financial aid agreements concluded between the applicant and the European Community, represented by the Commission, and also the financial penalty and interest on late payment, reimbursement or payment of which the Commission claims from the applicant on the basis of the final findings of a financial audit, are not payable or, at least, not payable in full; (ii) that the Commission’s right to extrapolate the final audit findings to another grant agreement is time-barred; and (iii) that the Commission engaged the contractual liability of the European Union by suspending, on the basis of the preliminary financial audit findings, payment of the amounts payable to the applicant under two other grant agreements; and, in the second place, an order that the Commission pay to the applicant (i) the amounts remaining payable to it under the grant agreements performance of which was suspended and under another financial aid agreement, together with late payment interest; and (ii) damages to make good the loss suffered by the applicant owing to the abusive exercise by the Commission of the rights which it derived from the financial aid or grant agreements subject to the financial audit and the grant agreements the performance of which was suspended, following that audit.
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Declares that there is no need to give a ruling on the head of claim of Amitié Srl requesting the Court to take note of the fact that the European Commission abandoned its challenge to the amounts which remained payable to the applicant for the implementation of the grant agreements references ECP-2007-DILI-517005, relating to the Athena (Access to cultural heritage networks across Europe) action, and ECP-2008-DILI-538025, relating to the Judaica Europeana (Jewish urban digital European integrated cultural archive) action;
Dismisses the action as to the remainder;
Orders Amitié to pay to the Commission (i) a sum of EUR 50 458.23, with interest on late payment at the rate of 4.5% per annum from 6 April 2012 and until full payment of that sum, (ii) a sum of EUR 261 947.36, with interest on late payment at the rate of 4.25% per annum from 28 December 2012 and until full payment of that sum, (iii) a sum of EUR 358 712.35, with interest on late payment at the rate of 4.5% per annum from 8 May 2012 and until full payment of that sum, and (iv) a sum of EUR 5 045.82, with interest on late payment at the rate of 4.5% per annum from 23 June 2012 and until full payment of that sum;
Orders Amitié to bear its own costs and to pay four fifths of the costs of the Commission;
Orders the Commission to bear one fifth of its own costs.
____________1 OJ C 243, 11.8.2012.