Right to Effective Remedy in The Area of European Funds. Case CJEU C-510/24, PROFIL-COPY 2002

Author: Elena Triscariu

On October 16, 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued an important ruling on the right of beneficiaries of European funds to an effective remedy against decisions of national authorities ordering the recovery of subsidies granted under Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2021 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund Plus, the Cohesion Fund, the Just Transition Fund and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and financial rules for those and for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Internal Security Fund and the Instrument for Financial Support for Border Management and Visa Policy.

Context of the case

The request for a preliminary ruling has been made in the proceedings between PROFIL-COPY 2002 Irodatechnikai Kft. (“Profil-Copy”), a Hungarian company, on the one hand, and Közigazgatási és Területfejlesztési Minisztérium (Ministry of Public Administration and Regional Development, Hungary) (“the Ministry”), acting as the managing authority for the operational program ‘Economic Development and Innovation Plus’, on the other, concerning the recovery of a grant paid to Profil-Copy.

According to Hungarian law (Decree No. 256/2021), the beneficiary could lodge a single administrative appeal.

Profil-Copy brought a civil action to challenge the legality of the decision to recover the grant and requested provisional measures prohibiting the ministry from recovering or enforcing the amount claimed.

Questions submitted

The Budapest-Capital Court, Hungary (Fővárosi Törvényszék) has asked the CJEU to clarify whether the beneficiary of a grant has, under Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, an effective judicial remedy against an enforceable decision requiring restitution of the funds received; whether a civil action brought in the absence of other remedies can be considered such a remedy; to what extent the remedy remains effective when it cannot prevent the risk of insolvency of the beneficiary caused by the enforcement of the decision; and whether the national court is entitled to order provisional measures to ensure the effective protection of the party, even when domestic law does not provide for such a possibility.

What the Court of Justice of the European Union decided

 The CJEU ruled that the beneficiary of a European Union grant must have an effective judicial remedy against an enforceable decision of the managing authority of a program supported by EU funds requiring the restitution of the grant.

At the same time, the possibility for the beneficiary of a European Union grant to (a) challenge, incidentally, an enforceable decision requiring restitution of that grant in civil proceedings to have the withdrawal decision recognized as unlawful, and (b) request, in the respective proceedings, provisional measures to suspend the enforcement of the decision, constitutes an effective judicial remedy.

These interpretations were thus considered to be in accordance with Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

At the same time, the reasoning behind the CJEU ruling also shows that if national law prohibits such measures, the court must disapply the domestic rule that is contrary to EU law to ensure the effective protection of the litigant.

The significance of CJEU’s ruling

The CJEU ruling consolidates European case law on the obligation of Member States to guarantee effective judicial remedies in the field of EU funds against authorities’ decisions imposing restitution of subsidies paid from EU funds. Thus, the right to effective judicial remedies is a fundamental element of judicial protection in the European Union for beneficiaries of European funds, in accordance with Article 47 of the Charter.

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