The firm prevails in two cases concerning negative evaluation of applications.
9 July 2025 • Autor: Kancelaria Brysiewicz Bokina i Wspólnicy
The attorneys from the law firm represented beneficiaries in two separate cases concerning negative evaluations of projects funded under the European Social Fund, in which the institutions denied funding due to initially low scores. In the first case, which concluded with a final and binding judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court on August 8, 2018 (ref. no. I GSK 2527/18), dismissing the authority’s cassation complaint, the firm’s client was three points short of securing a position eligible for funding. As a result of the court proceedings and the project’s re-evaluation, the score was increased by several points, ultimately leading to the signing of a funding agreement. The SAC ruling is available here: http://orzeczenia.nsa.gov.pl/doc/B5AAC9AA56. In the second case, an initially unfavorable judgment for the applicant issued by the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw was overturned by a SAC judgment on October 9, 2018 (ref. no. I GSK 2803/18). Subsequently, on February 5, 2019, the Warsaw court fully upheld the applicant’s claims regarding the flawed evaluation of the project across six separate criteria. This case also ultimately resulted in the signing of a funding agreement. The SAC and WAC rulings are available here: http://orzeczenia.nsa.gov.pl/doc/74D7F24AC9 and http://orzeczenia.nsa.gov.pl/doc/9D6192298B. In both cases, the courts emphasized, among other things, the increasingly accepted standards that institutions are required to follow when evaluating projects—including the obligation to read the applications as a whole (and the importance of treating clear clerical errors accordingly), the prohibition against introducing additional requirements not explicitly included in the competition documentation, the closed nature of the evaluation criteria, and the rules for resolving discrepancies between expert assessments. The applicants in these proceedings were represented by attorneys from the Brysiewicz i Wspólnicy law firm—legal advisor Krzysztof Brysiewicz and legal advisor Dr. Magdalena Porzeżyńska.
None of the cases we handled for our clients were easy or quick—each required the involvement of the Supreme Administrative Court. Despite the accelerated procedure applicable to project evaluation cases, the entire process—from filing the complaint to signing the funding agreement—could take up to a year. Nevertheless, our clients now have the satisfaction of knowing it was worth the effort.
In cases involving negative project evaluations, clients are primarily focused on ensuring that the appeal process leads to the signing of a funding agreement. This is not always guaranteed—even if the unfavorable decision is overturned, it may be due to formal errors, or it might turn out that the available funds have already been exhausted in the meantime.
“When taking on these types of cases, we support our clients all the way through to the signing of the agreements,” says Krzysztof Brysiewicz, Managing Partner.
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