(Case T-401/07)

ERDF – Reduction of financial assistance – Global grant for local development in Portugal – Action for annulment – Whether directly concerned – Inadmissibility – Arbitration clause

1. Actions for annulment – Natural or legal persons – Measures of direct and individual concern to them – Whether directly concerned – Criteria – Commission decision, addressed to a Member State, reducing financial aid from the European Regional Development Fund – Decision not requiring recovery of the sums paid from the final beneficiaries – No discretion of the Member State as to recovery of the said amounts arising under national law – Action brought by the organisation entrusted with management of the said aid – Not directly concerned – Inadmissibility (Art. 230, fourth para., EC) (see paras 61-90)

2. Procedure – Referral to the General Court under an arbitration clause – Jurisdiction of the General Court defined by the arbitration clause – Jurisdiction in derogation from ordinary law – Restrictive interpretation – Application for payment of the balance of Community financial assistance – Application outside the scope of the arbitration clause – Lack of jurisdiction of the General Court (Art. 238 EC) (see paras 99-102)

Re:

ACTION for partial annulment of Commission Decision C(2007) 3772 of 31 July 2007 reducing the financial assistance granted by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to the global grant for local development in Portugal by Commission Decision C(95) 1769 of the European Commission of 28 July 1995, and a claim for an order against the Commission to pay the final balance of the financial assistance under Article 238 EC.

Operative part

The Court:

1.Dismisses the action as inadmissible;

2.Orders the Caixa Geral de Depósitos, SA to bear its own costs and to pay those of the European Commission;

3.Orders the Republic of Portugal to bear its own costs.