The activation by the Gabinete do Ordenador Nacional para a Cooperação entre a República de Moçambique e a UE (Office of the National Authorising Officer for Cooperation between the Republic of Mozambique and the EU) (‘GON’) of the guarantees issued by the applicant, which forms the basis of the present action and which resulted in the adoption of the Commission’s decision which is now being challenged, constitutes a manifest infringement of the principle of good faith and a clear abuse of rights. The fact that the applicant did not pay the guarantees, which were unlawfully activated by GON, led the European Commission to adopt the contested decision by which the applicant is excluded for a period of three years from participating in public procurement procedures governed by Council Regulation (EU) 2018/1877 and by Regulation (EU/Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council or from being selected to implement Union funds due to alleged grave professional misconduct and alleged significant deficiencies in complying with the main obligations in the performance of a contract financed by the Union’s budget.

The contested decision must be annulled on the ground that the European Commission committed manifest errors in its ‘preliminary classification in law’ of the applicant’s conduct, in so far as:

The contested decision must be annulled on the ground that the European Commission did not comply with the principle of proportionality, inasmuch as the exclusion of the applicant is disproportionate.