Greek town frustrated over tree-planting grant

The Greek town of Perama has suffered a further setback in its legal bid to prevent the European commission reclaiming €467,000 of EU funds over a botched tree-planting exercise (EED 21/11/07).  In an order delivered this month the European court of first instance refused to overturn a European commission decision in November to freeze bank accounts belonging to the municipality.  The court said it was not entitled to rule on the issue.  Earlier a national court had deferred the case to EU judges.  See order in case T-312/07 (Greek).