Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Non-contractual liability — Conditions — Unlawfulness of conduct complained of — Damage — Causal link — (Art. 288, second para., EC)

2. Community law — Principles — Protection of legitimate expectations — Conditions

Summary

1. In order for the Community to incur non-contractual liability, the applicant must prove the unlawfulness of the alleged conduct of the institution concerned, actual damage and the existence of a causal link between that conduct and the damage pleaded. Where any one of those conditions is not satisfied, the action must be dismissed in its entirety and it is unnecessary to consider the other conditions for non-contractual liability.

see para. 23

2. The right to rely on the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations, which is one of the fundamental principles of the Community, extends to any individual in a situation where the Community authorities, by giving him precise assurances, have caused him to entertain legitimate expectations. However, a person may not plead breach of the principle unless he has been given precise assurances by the administration.

Such assurances, in whatever form they are given, are precise, unconditional and consistent information from authorised and reliable sources. Nevertheless, neither a confirmation of receipt of a request for funding for a particular project expressly mentioning, in a clear and unambiguous way, that it does not constitute an authorisation and that consideration of the project will take place at a later date, nor a provisional communication of the result of the examination of a request for financing, sent explicitly subject to the final decision of the institution concerned, can be regarded as precise assurances from the Community administration leading an economic operator to entertain reasonable expectations.

see paras 26, 28-29, 32