The ERDF and ESF
Unjustified item of expenditure in public procurements & European Structural Funds
The failure to comply with national provisions by a contracting authority, the beneficiary of a Structural Fund grant, in connection with the award of a public contract of an estimated value below the threshold of European notices may constitute, at the time the contract is awarded, an "irregularity" by the charging of an unjustified item of expenditure.
The financial corrections by Member States, if applied to co-financed expenditure under Structural Funds, are administrative measures.
The principles of legal certainty and protection of legitimate expectations must be interpreted as not precluding a Member State from applying financial corrections governed by an internal legislative measure which entered into force after an alleged breach of the rules governing public contracts occurred, provided that it is a question of the application of new rules to the future effects of situations which arose under the earlier rules, which is a matter to be determined by the national court, taking into account all the relevant circumstances of the proceedings before it.
Source: CJEU, C- 260 & 261/14, 26 May 2016
Associated areas of specialisation: Public procurement and PPP