Judgment_paragraph 151 · Johannes Tomana and Others v Council of the European Union and European Commission (T-190/12)

151As regards the applicants’ argument that the grounds for the renewal of the restrictive measures at issue against them were disclosed only in the defences to this action (see paragraph 140 above), it is necessary to recall the settled case-law that a decision of an institution must be self-sufficient and the reasons on which it is based may not be stated in written or oral explanations given subsequently when the decision in question is already the subject of proceedings brought before the Courts of the European Union (the judgment in Case T-16/91 RV Rendo and Others v Commission [1996] ECR II-1827, paragraph 45, and the judgment of 7 July 2011 in Case T‑161/04 Valero Jordana v Commission, paragraph 107). While a statement of reasons which has begun to be expressed in a contested act may be enlarged upon and clarified during the proceedings, the institution which is the author of that act is not entitled to substitute an entirely new statement of reasons in place of the initial statement of reasons (Valero Jordana v Commission, paragraph 107; see also, to that effect, the judgments in Rendo and Others v Commission, paragraph 55, and in Case T-4/01 Renco v Council [2003] ECR II-171, paragraph 96).