Judgment_paragraph 22 · Internationaler Hilfsfonds eV v Commission of the European Communities (C-331/05 P)

22It is true, as IH rightly submitted, that the fact that costs relating to proceedings before the Ombudsman are not recoverable under Article 91(b) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance is in principle irrelevant for the purposes of determining whether such costs may give rise to a claim for compensation under the second paragraph of Article 288 EC. As the Court of First Instance itself held in the contested order, that article is applicable only to costs incurred in proceedings before the Court of First Instance, to the exclusion of any prior stage. The right to recover the costs of proceedings and the right to damages are, in principle, subject to different rules and are independent of each other.