14In the contested judgment the Court rejected the first plea. It also rejected as inadmissible the respondents' claim for an order that the Commission should pay the balance of the assistance. Finally, as to the second and third pleas, the only ones with which this appeal is concerned, the Court of First Instance held as follows:42. The Court observes that it is settled law that respect for the rights of the defence in all proceedings which are initiated against a person and are liable to culminate in a measure adversely affecting that person is a fundamental principle of Community law which must be guaranteed, even in the absence of any specific rules concerning the proceedings in question (see in particular Joined Cases C-48/90 and C-66/90 Netherlands and Others v Commission [1992] ECR I-565, paragraph 44, and Case C-135/92 Fiskano v Commission [1994] ECR I-2885). That principle requires that any person who may be adversely affected by the adoption of a decision should be placed in a position in which he may effectively make known his views on the evidence against him which the Commission has taken as the basis for the decision at issue.43. To determine whether the applicants' rights of defence have been infringed in this case, it must be considered whether, having regard to the role played in the relevant procedure by the Member State as sole interlocutor of the [Fund] the contested decision is capable of directly concerning the applicants and adversely affecting them.44. It must be held that the contested decision deprives the recipient undertakings of a part of the assistance initially granted and that Regulation No 2950/83 does not give the Member State concerned any power to make its own assessment (see, most recently, the order in Case T-446/93 Frinii and Others v Commission, not published in the ECR, paragraph 29).45. Furthermore, it was in the repayment demand of 3 March 1992 that the Commission definitively purported to reduce the assistance granted, as it had indicated in the letter of 14 June 1991 from DG V to DAFSE. The Commission's decision incorporated in the abovementioned letter was, it is true, addressed only to the Portuguese authorities. However, it named and expressly referred to the applicants as direct beneficiaries of the assistance granted. The Court therefore considers that the applicants are directly and individually concerned by the contested decision to reduce that assistance.46. That analysis is confirmed by the fact that it has consistently been held that undertakings which have received financial assistance from the [Fund] are entitled to bring actions against the decisions depriving them of such assistance (see Case C-291/89 Interhotel v Commission [1991] ECR I-2257, paragraph 13, and Case C-157/90 Infortec v Commission [1992] ECR I-3525, paragraph 17), which presupposes not only that they are individually concerned by such decisions, but also that they are directly concerned by them.47. That analysis is also borne out by the provisions of Regulation No 2950/83, the effect of which is to establish a direct link between the Commission and the recipient of the assistance, even though the Member State is the sole interlocutor of the [Fund] Article 6 of Regulation No 2950/83 provides that first, it is for the Commission to suspend, reduce or withdraw assistance [from the Fund] , where it has not been used in conformity with the conditions set out in the decision of approval, the relevant Member State merely having an opportunity to comment, and secondly, sums paid which are not used in accordance with the conditions laid down in the decision of approval are to be refunded, the Member State concerned having only secondary liability for the repayment of sums, unwarranted payment of which has been made for operations to which the guarantee referred to in Article 2(2) of Decision 83/516 applies.48. The applicants are therefore directly affected by the economic consequences of the decision to reduce the assistance, which adversely affects them since they have primary liability for the repayment of the sums paid without warrant (judgment in Netherlands and Others v Commission, cited above, paragraph 50). Moreover, the Commission acknowledged at the hearing that, if necessary, it could commence proceedings against the applicants in the national courts for recovery of the sums at issue.49. It follows that the Commission, which alone assumes legal liability to the applicants for the contested decision, was not entitled to adopt the contested decision without first giving those undertakings the possibility, or ensuring that they had had the possibility, of effectively setting forth their views on the proposed reduction in assistance.50. It is common ground that neither the reports of the Commission's enquiry nor the Commission's complaints against them were notified to the applicants, and that they were not heard by the Commission before it adopted the contested decision. It is also agreed that DAFSE, after having being invited by the Commission by letter of 14 June 1991 to submit its observations, informed the Commission by letter of 8 July 1991, without first hearing the applicants, that it intended to accept the decision which the Commission was preparing to adopt with respect to the applicants.51. In those circumstances the adoption of the contested decision infringed the applicants' rights of defence.’
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