Judgments of the General Court in Cases T-381/15 RENV II, T-509/21

PRESS RELEASE No 128/24 Luxembourg, 4 September 2024 Judgments of the General Court in Cases T-381/15 RENV II and T-509/21 | IMG v Commission Indirect management of the EU budget: according to the General Court, the Commission’s decision refusing to recognise IMG as having status as an international organisation is lawful The Court considers, in the light of international law, that the signatories to the 1994 resolution creating that entity did not intend to establish an international organisation In 2013, the European Commission entrusted the entity International Management Group (IMG) 1 with the management of certain development cooperation funds in accordance with the procedure known as ‘joint management’, now known as ‘indirect management’. That procedure, provided for in the EU financial rules, enables international organisations to implement funds from the European Union’s budget. On 16 December 2014, the Commission suspended its relations with IMG on account of doubts as to the latter’s status as an international organisation and, by decision of 8 May 2015, it informed IMG of its intention not to conclude any new delegation agreements for indirect management with that entity until its legal status had been definitively clarified. Back in 2015, IMG challenged the Commission’s decisions of 16 December 2014 and 8 May 2015 before the General Court of the European Union and the Court of Justice, giving rise to several years of court proceedings 2....