15.8.2008

Official Journal of the European Union

C 209/20

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(Case C-183/08 P)

(2008/C 209/28)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Appellant: Commission of the European Communities (represented by: D. Martin and L. Flynn, Agents)

Other party to the proceedings: Provincia di Imperia

Form of order sought

—annul the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 14 February 2008 in Case T-351/05;

—declare that the action brought by the Provincia di Imperia in that case was inadmissible;

—order the Provincia di Imperia to pay the Commission's costs in the present case.

Pleas in law and main arguments

By its appeal, the Commission complains that the judgment under appeal failed to apply the conditions governing the admissibility of an action for annulment brought under Article 230 EC, in particular by considering that the applicant at first instance had an interest in bringing an action. An action for annulment brought by a natural or legal person is only admissible in so far as the outcome of the action is likely to produce a benefit for the applicant. In the present case, the action brought by the applicant is manifestly inadmissible since a judgment annulling the contested act would, in itself, in no way produce a ‘benefit’ for that applicant. The granting of a subsidy is effectively a concession agreed to by the Commission and a party responding to a call for proposals consequently has no right to such a subsidy.

Alternatively, the Commission submits that, even if the applicant at first instance did have an interest in bringing an action on the day it brought its action, that interest would in any event have disappeared by the time the judgment under appeal was delivered, since the entire budget set aside for the call for proposals had been used up and the programming had come to an end.

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