The TSJC reviews the reimbursement of a business creation grant

The General Technical Secretariat of the Department of Economy, Industry, Commerce and Self-Employed of the Government of the Canary Islands has ordered the referral to the Contentious-Administrative Chamber, Second Section, of the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC), based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, of the administrative file regarding the appeal filed by Marie Lourdes Lilyan Jansen Moreno against the full reimbursement of the subsidy she obtained for a business creation project. The decision was formalized via a resolution dated October 6, 2026, signed by the general technical secretary Marcos Barrera González, and is published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC) No. 209, corresponding to Tuesday, October 20, 2026, in section V of announcements.

The origin of the litigation is public aid granted under the Order of December 18, 2020, of the now-defunct Department of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, which definitively resolved the call for the first selection procedure of 2020 for subsidies for investment projects of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Canary Islands, co-financed by the ERDF Canary Islands Operational Program 2014-2020. The regional Administration subsequently considered that the project did not meet the required conditions and agreed to fully recover the funds delivered.

The resolution published now does not detail the amount of the affected subsidy, but it does precisely establish the chain of administrative acts that the court must review. The announcement comes after the administrative route was exhausted with the dismissal of the appeal for reversal presented by the beneficiary.

The chain of contested resolutions

The file now traveling to the TSJC links three decisions from the General Directorate of Economic Promotion and Diversification:

• Resolution No. 186/2025, of February 5, which declares the full reimbursement of the subsidy granted for the project type “Creation of a company.”
• Resolution No. 2795/2026, of July 29, which dismisses the appeal for reversal filed by the appellant against the previous resolution.
• Contentious-administrative appeal No. 209/2026, promoted by Marie Lourdes Lilyan Jansen Moreno and admitted by the Second Section of the TSJC.

The referral is agreed “having seen the agreement” of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of October 1, 2026, and in application of articles 48 and 49 of Law 29/1998, of July 13, regulating the Contentious-Administrative Jurisdiction, which obliges the Administration to make the file available to the judicial body once requested.

Nine days to appear in court

The second point of the resolution, adopted under Article 45.1.a) of Law 39/2015, of October 1, on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations, orders the publication of the agreement in the BOC and summons all those listed as interested parties in appeal no. 209/2026. The deadline to appear before the Second Section of the TSJC and enter the proceedings is nine days starting from the day following the publication of the announcement, that is, from October 21, 2026.

Those who do not appear within this period will lose their status as a party to the proceedings, although publication in the bulletin replaces individual notification precisely to ensure that any affected party can become aware of the existence of the lawsuit.

A trickle of litigation over ERDF grants

This case is not isolated. BOC no. 158, of August 7, 2026, published an announcement from the same Technical General Secretariat by which the file for appeal no. 188/2026 was referred to the TSJC—in this case, to the headquarters in Santa Cruz de Tenerife—filed by the entity Décacross, S.C. against the dismissal of its appeal for reversal and against the partial reimbursement of another business creation grant from the same 2014-2020 ERDF call.

Both proceedings share the same regulatory framework and judicial body, which outlines a growing front of litigation regarding the execution of European funds destined for SMEs in the archipelago: beneficiaries who exhaust the administrative route and move the discussion regarding compliance with the obligations conditioning the aid to the court.

What is being resolved in the lawsuit

The court will not now review whether the grant was correctly awarded, but whether the decision to recover it in full complies with the law. The controversy will center on the reasoning of Resolution no. 186/2025 and the scope of the reimbursement obligation when the Administration perceives a breach of the conditions of the subsidized project.

The relevance of the announcement is twofold. For the appellant, it opens the door for a judge to annul the reimbursement and return the aid. For the rest of the beneficiaries of the 2020 call, it sets a precedent on how these conflicts are processed and serves as a reminder that the nine-day period runs from the official publication, without additional individual notice.

Source: Official Gazette of the Canary Islands, no. 209, October 20, 2026, section V (Announcements), page 37849 (official reference: 3607).