(Case T-765/21 Action brought on 7December 2021– Imdea Materiales v Commission

Action brought on 7December 2021– Imdea Materiales v Commission

(Case T-765/21)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: Fundación Imdea Materiales (Madrid, Spain) (represented by: P.Suárez Fernández, J.Salinas Casado and Z.Marcos Vaquero, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant submits that the Court should:

declare that the European Commission has failed to comply with Article II.22.5 of the General Conditions of the Contract entitled ‘FP7 Grant Agreement– AnnexII General Conditions’ so that the process reverts to the stage when observations are presented to the European Commission;

declare that there has been no breach of the contractual terms and conditions by IMDEA (Fundación Imdea Materiales) so that the recovery and compensation measures imposed are ineffective;

alternatively, in accordance with the principle of proportionality, recalculate the amount to be recovered by the European Commission.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on three pleas in law.

First plea in law, alleging infringement by the European Commission of Article II.22.5 of the General Conditions, in view of the refusal of access to documentation and information provided to IMDEA, which could not be taken into account at the time when observations were presented;

Second plea in law, alleging the veracity of the expenses declared by the IMDEA to the European Commission for the researchers who were part of the Compose3 Project in relation to Articles II.14 and II.15 of the General Conditions;

In that regard, a large amount of evidence is provided, the combined assessment of which leads to the conclusion that the expenses were genuine;

Third plea in law, alleging infringement of Article II.22.6 of the General Conditions as a result of the breach of the principle of proportionality, in so far as the European Commission failed to carry out any balancing of the punitive measures imposed.

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