Bruno Stromsky

The two judgments of the Court of First Instance in Cases T-260/21 and T-306/21 are similar and provide a better understanding of the discretion available to the Commission in implementing Article 107(3)(b) TFEU. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission adopted a temporary (...)

In upholding the legality of a final Commission decision authorizing aid for the construction of two new nuclear reactors at a Hungarian nuclear power plant (the Paks nuclear power plant) in cooperation with Russia, the Court of First Instance both recognized a significant margin of (...)

The judgment of November 17, 2022 overturns two judgments of the General Court (TFEU, May 13, 2020, Volotea, T-607/17, EU:T:2020:180; Germanwings, T-716/17, easyJet, T-8/18, EU:T:2020:182; see Concurrences 3-2020) and a decision of the Commission. It changes our understanding of the private (...)

The Court of Justice dismissed an appeal against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 5 May 2021 (Case T-561/18), which had partially dismissed an action brought by ITD, a trade association of road haulage and logistics operators, and Danske Fragtmaend, a company active in the road (...)

This judgment is part of a set of cases concerning the companies of the Tirrenia Group, regularly in difficulty, which for years provided maritime transport services between mainland Italy and islands under public service agreements with the Italian Republic, and which were privatized between (...)

During a monitoring exercise carried out in 2015, the Commission found that Portugal was not respecting the conditions for granting regional operating aid, in the form of various tax benefits, in the free zone of Madeira. The tax reductions granted to companies in this outermost region were (...)

The JCDecaux case arose from an anomaly in the performance of contracts between the public authorities, in this case the City of Brussels, and an operator of street furniture for advertising purposes, the central question being to determine whether this anomaly should be analysed as an (...)

Since 1991, the group’s companies have provided shipping services transport services under public service agreements with the Italian service agreements with the Italian Republic, mainly concerning between the Italian mainland and the islands of Sicily and islands, notably Sicily and Sardinia. (...)

The Court’s judgment in Petra Flasker emphasizes that the Commission cannot easily reject a complaint complaint on the grounds that it concerns existing aid, by relying on statements made by the Member State Member State concerned, without having conducted a sufficiently precise and detailed (...)

The Provinz Bozen preliminary ruling is quite short and does not contains no major innovations, but it revisits the distinction between distinction between unlawful aid and unlawful aid, the latter the distinction between unlawful aid and undue aid, the latter category cases. It also includes (...)

The Zinatses parks judgment concerns a case of granting of structural funds and more specifically a project in the framework of a co-financing program of the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund). Project proposals are rejected when submitted by companies in difficulty, as they are not (...)

The Satini preliminary ruling does not only concern the field of state aid, and in this field it does not contain any major innovation. However, the judgment has the great merit of recalling with great clarity that compensation for a disadvantage remains in general an advantage within the (...)

This judgment is the continuation (and perhaps the epilogue) of a dispute that had pitted certain Greek casinos against the Commission and which had resulted in the annulment of that institution’s decision by the General Court (EU Court, September 11, 2014, Greece v. Commission, Case T-425/11, (...)

Two Polish municipalities have set up a wholly-owned company with the aim of converting the military airport of Gdynia-Oksywie in Pomerania, mainly for use by low-cost airlines. In financing this conversion, the municipalities claimed to have acted as private investors and provided studies to (...)

In order to escape the aid discipline, Member States sometimes try to split up their interventions in favour of companies in difficulty. In this way, each intervention, considered in isolation, no longer meets the criteria for being classified as State aid. In the Oltchim case, while the (...)

The Tempus judgment of October 6, 2021 concerns a first-phase decision of the Commission on aid to the capacity remuneration mechanism created by Poland. It should not be confused with the Tempus case, which had given rise to an annulment judgment on November 15, 2018 (Case T-793/14, Tempus (...)

The TUIfly judgment sheds light on the way in which agreements between airports and airlines on the establishment of new air routes and advertising services concerning airports are analyzed from the point of view of aid discipline, and in particular the private investor criterion. The (...)

The series of DCI judgments of the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance contains conceptual developments of great interest for the discipline of aid. The judgment of 22 September 2021 is no exception. The use of arbitration and the overall problem The Court of First Instance (...)

The INC judgment is an interesting and rather rare example of a case being dismissed for lack of legal interest on the part of competitors of the beneficiaries because it appears that the Member State’s project is no longer likely to be implemented under conditions that comply with those laid (...)

Following the Advocate General’s conclusions, the Court’s Tempus judgment seems to have put a stop to a marked jurisprudential trend of the General Court which led it to increasingly see indications of serious difficulties in preliminary examination procedures leading to decisions not to raise (...)

An appeal was brought before the Court of Justice against a judgment of the Court of First Instance declaring inadmissible an action for annulment of a final decision of the Commission. The latter rejected the classification as aid of a series of measures which benefited Frankfurt-Hahn (...)

The Court of Justice had before it questions referred by the Italian Court of Cassation which enabled it, inter alia, to recall the strictness with which the scope of the Commission’s decisions authorising an aid scheme must be interpreted and the limits of the concept of existing aid. Since (...)

The Court has, not surprisingly, found Greece in breach of an infringement procedure for failure to comply with a Commission decision of 2011 declaring incompatible with the internal market some of the aid granted by that State in 2008 to hundreds of thousands of farmers to compensate for (...)

The Court of Justice dismissed the appeal against the judgment of the Court of First Instance in Fortischem v. Commission (T-121/15, commentary in Concurrences 1-2020). The main interest of this judgment is to confirm the analysis followed by the Court of First Instance as regards the economic (...)

In its judgments on appeal, the Court confirmed the analysis of the Court of First Instance (TFEU, 16 May 2019, Poland v Commission, T-836/16 and T-624/17, EU :T :2019 :338, Concurrences 3-19and TFEU, 27 June 2019, Hungary v Commission, T-20/17, EU :T :2019 :448), which had led to the (...)

The Court’s judgment of 2 March 2021 dismisses the Commission’s appeal against the judgment of the General Court in Tercas (Trib. EU, 19 March 2019, Italy, Banca Popolare di Bari (formerly Tercas Bank) and Others v Commission, T-98/16, T-196/16 and T-198/16, Concurrences No 2/2019). Following (...)

The judgment of the Court of 17 December 2020 clarifies the interpretation of several provisions of the 2011 Framework applicable to aid in the form of public service compensation and confirms the wide margin of manoeuvre available to Member States in this area, even in the presence of a (...)

This case concerns the compatibility under Article 106(2) TFEU of compensation granted by the State to Czech Post for the fulfilment of a universal service obligation for the period 2013-2017. The Court of First Instance validates a first phase decision taken in February 2018, declaring the (...)

The Court’s judgment of 22 September on appeal is not limited to confirming the first instance judgment which had dismissed Austria’s action for annulment of the Commission’s decision authorising the disputed aid to the "Hinkley Point" nuclear power plant as compatible with the internal market (...)

While the vast majority of new aid schemes (almost 95% according to 2019 figures) are covered by a block exemption regulation, the question of the correct application and interpretation of the provisions of these regulations becomes even more acute. Complaints are thus lodged with the (...)

At first instance, the Court of First Instance had annulled a Commission decision of 2015 which, following a first-phase examination, declared aid granted by the Netherlands to nature conservation organisations compatible with the internal market under Article 106(2) TFEU. These organisations (...)

The three judgments handed down by the Tribunal in the cases concerning airlines serving Sardinia are quite rich. They deal in particular with an often complex and controversial issue, that of the indirect benefit of aid. The case law makes it clear that Article 107(1) TFEU applies both to (...)

The granting of State aid which is not covered by an exemption regulation is subject to prior approval by the Commission. As part of its notification, the State may stipulate that the granting of such aid will be subject to certain conditions. It may also give undertakings to the Commission, (...)

At first instance, the Court of First Instance held that the Commission should reopen the formal investigation procedure when new guidelines entailing a change in the legal regime are adopted after the opening (Trib. EU, 17 Nov. 2017, Gmina Miasto Gdynia (’Municipality of Gdynia’) and others, (...)

Iberpotash is the operator of two active potash mines in Catalonia and owns a salt heap on a site where mining activities have long ceased. These mining activities are polluting, which normally creates environmental obligations and burdens for the operator. In particular, the operator has to (...)

The Court’s judgment of 11 December puts an end to a dispute over the classification as State aid of a measure taken by the Greek court for interim measures allowing an operator to continue to benefit from a preferential electricity supply tariff. This is the fourth judgment relating to this (...)

This second judgment of the Dilly’s Wellnesshotel Court clarifies the meaning and scope of the block exemption regulations, by somewhat nuancing the rules of strict interpretation of these regulations which resulted in particular from the first Dilly’s Wellnesshotel judgment (CJEU, 21 July (...)

The Montessori judgment of the Grand Board appears to be an important turning point as regards the admissibility of appeals against Commission decisions relating to aid schemes, particularly where those decisions are favourable to a Member State. Whereas it had hitherto interpreted in a (...)

The Fortischem judgment concerns an attempt by Slovakia to rescue a private chemical production company (NCHZ), which was facing bankruptcy proceedings and which the State considered strategic. It is of two main interests: on the one hand, it clearly shows how the manipulation of the (...)

FIH is a Danish bank that has benefited from measures taken by Denmark as early as 2009 to stabilise its banking sector. Two measures in particular were approved by the Commission under aid schemes compatible with the internal market: one consisted of a hybrid A-class capital injection; the (...)

The judgment on appeal of 29 July 2019 follows the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 12 September 2017 (Trib. EU, BMW, case T-671/14; see Concurrences No. 4-2017), by which the Court of First Instance had upheld the validity of a Commission decision declaring investment aid granted by (...)

The Commission has adopted a new Notice on the recovery of unlawful and incompatible aid which replaces its 2007 Recovery Notice (OJ C 272, 15 November 2007, p. 4). The purpose of the new Notice is not to announce a course of action, but rather to recall the principles set out in the previous (...)

The judgment of 11 July 2019 dismisses as inadmissible the action brought by Air France against a final decision of the Commission after the initiation of the formal investigation procedure authorising several ’aid’ measures in favour of Marseille airport and the companies using the airport. (...)

The judgment of the Court of First Instance of 16 May contains important developments relating to the selectivity of tax aid, an area which is the subject of much controversy and is the subject of evolving case law. In July 2016, Poland introduced a tax on the retail sale of goods to (...)

The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania referred several questions to the Court for a preliminary ruling on whether or not the Lithuanian rules on services of public interest in the electricity sector constituted State aid. The main doubts of the referring court related to the financing (...)

The Deutsche Lufthansa judgment declares inadmissible the action for annulment brought by Lufthansa against a final decision of the Commission which ruled out the classification as aid of a series of measures which benefited Frankfurt Hahn airport, Ryanair and the airlines using that airport, (...)

The Court of First Instance annulled a decision to extend the formal investigation procedure taken by the Commission in 2011 concerning the granting of public funds to Deutsche Post, a former public operator. The measures examined are various and old. They have been the subject of several (...)

The Court’s judgment of 28 March 2019 concerns a support system for renewable energy. It is of great interest with regard to the concept of State resources and favours a restrictive concept which does not seem to be free of a certain formalism. The judgment of the Tribunal which it sets (...)

The Tribunal’s "Tercas" judgment is important in that it adopts a restrictive approach to the concept of State resources and the imputability of a measure to the State. It is to be compared with the Germany v. Commission judgment in case C-405/16 P delivered by the Court two days later (see (...)

Polish Post has been granted compensation by the State for the net cost of fulfilling its universal postal service obligations for the period between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2015. The Commission declared this state aid compatible with the internal market following a preliminary (...)

Note: another judgment of the same day deals with the same case: Trib. EU, 13 Dec. 2018, Stena Line, case T-631/15, EU:T:2018:944 After having partially annulled on 19 September 2018 a decision not to raise any objections to aid to finance an important project of common European interest (...)

The ARFEA judgment is set in the same context as the Simet (Trib. EU, 3 March 2016, T-15/14, EU :T :2016 :124), Buonotourist (Trib. UE, 11 July 2018, T-185/15, EU :T :2018 :430) and CSTP (Trib. EU, 11 July 2018, T-186/15, EU:T:2018:431). It stems from the case law of the Italian Council of (...)

The Tempus judgment is one of a series of recent cases in which the Court of First Instance has annulled first-phase decisions. In that case, the Court of First Instance appears to have sought to modify the prevailing analytical framework with regard to external indications of the existence of (...)

The facts which led the Court of First Instance to annul a first-phase decision of the Commission in Case T-79/16 may appear quite trivial. The particular context of an atypical SGEI Until 2011, the Netherlands provided grants to nature conservation organisations for the acquisition of (...)

It is quite rare for the Court of First Instance to have to deal with aid granted to an important project of common European interest. It is with regard to such a project that it delivers a very detailed judgment essentially annulling a first phase decision, the main interest of which concerns (...)

This very voluminous judgment of the Court of First Instance (736 points) confirms the validity of the Commission’s final decision of 8 October 2014, which declared compatible with the internal market three aid measures notified by the United Kingdom in favour of NNBG, a subsidiary of EDF, in (...)

The Dirk Andres v. Commission judgment is one of four judgments delivered on 28 June 2018 on the same Commission decision, which considered the possibility offered by Germany to companies in difficulty to carry forward losses as selective and constituting State aid. These four judgments are (...)

On 26 October 2016, the Court of Justice annulled a judgment of the Court of First Instance (Trib. EU, Alouminion, Case T-542/11, see Concurrences n° 4/2014) and referred the case back to the latter (CJEU, DEI v. Alouminion, case C-590/14 P, see Concurrences n° 1-2017). Background (...)

In its judgment of 15 September 2016 (Trib. UE, 15 Sept. 2016, FIH Holding and others. Case T-386/14, see Concurrences n° 1-2017), the Court of First Instance seemed to depart from the Land Burgenland case law (CJEU, 24 October 2013, case C-214/12 P and others). see Concurrences n°1-2014). On (...)

The ZPT case may seem a little strange. It belongs to the often suspicious category of cases in which a company complains that it has not received State aid and the conditions under which it arose may seem quite atypical. The Bulgarian company ZPT applied for a remission of corporate tax (...)

Italy has a habit of granting tax aid to firms located in regions which have suffered natural disasters long after the event, without such aid corresponding to the amount of damage suffered as a result of the disaster. For example, following an earthquake which struck eastern Sicily in 1990, (...)

Traditionally, the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance have accepted that the Commission’s thinking may change significantly between the decision to initiate the formal investigation procedure and the final State aid decision. However, the judgment in Commune of Gdynia sets a (...)

The judgment of the Court of 25 October 2017 in the Milk Levies case demonstrates a commitment to compliance with the conditions of compatibility laid down by the authorisations for the grant of State aid and a strict understanding of the concept of existing aid. The Court clearly takes the (...)

The imagination of complainants in the State aid sector is sometimes very fertile, and the Commission thus finds itself dealing with certain complaints that are far removed from the concerns underlying aid discipline. In this case, the Commission was confronted with a simple town-planning (...)

The BMW judgment of the Court of First Instance is of interest for understanding how the Commission’s margin of discretion in examining the compatibility of aid with the internal market, compliance with the guidelines it issues and compliance with the block exemption regulations are (...)

Firms in difficulty are excluded from the scope of the General Block Exemption Regulation, just as they are generally excluded from the scope of the Guidelines on the compatibility of aid with the internal market. They are normally covered only by the rescue and restructuring aid guidelines. (...)

This important judgment of the Court of Justice gives Athinaiki Techniki case-law (judgment of 16 Dec. 2010, Athinaiki Techniki, Case C-362/09 P) a particularly strict interpretation, which limits the possibilities of withdrawal of a complaint closure by the Commission, when the Commission (...)

This judgment of the Court of First Instance contains, in particular, interesting clarifications as to how the Commission may or may not rely on the statements of the Member States in the analysis of the prudent private investor test. Zweibrücken public airport has renovated its terminal, (...)

In 2003 and 2004, after buying the assets of TVX, Hellas AE, the bankrupt company that operated the Cassandra gold mines, the Greek authorities resold the mines, the adjoining land and some gold reserves at a price below their market value. They also exempted the buyer from the payment of (...)

After a first judgment of the Court of First Instance was partially annulled on appeal (CJEU, 6 October 2015, Commission v Jorgen Andersen, Case C-303/13 P), the Court is once again called upon to hear this case of compensation for a service of general economic interest concerning a railway (...)

With a view to the privatisation of OPAP, a public body responsible for football match forecasting and a traditional monopoly, the Greek authorities have decided to extend for 10 years the exclusive rights already granted to OPAP for the operation of 13 games of chance. This extension was (...)

In the context of the financial crisis of 2008, the Belgian authorities set up a guarantee system for the benefit of natural persons who held shares in three cooperative financial companies of the ARCO Group, which was at the time one of the main shareholders of Dexia. This scheme was notified (...)

The Court of Justice allowed the appeal brought by DEI, an intervener at first instance in support of the Commission, against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 8 October 2014 (TEU, Alouminion v Commission, Case T-542/111). Without itself lodging an appeal, the Commission (...)

The Italian legislation granted a number of advantages to non-commercial entities, including in the context of their commercial activities, where available. Among the beneficiaries concerned were many religious entities. Having received complaints, the Commission has examined an Italian (...)

The "FIH" judgment proposes a new answer to a question which seemed to be resolved by the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Land Burgenland (CJEU, 24 October 2013, Land Burgenland and Others v Commission(Case C-214/12 P e.a.). when applying the prudent private (...)

Issue of the case In recent years, the scope of block exemptions for aid has widened considerably, to the extent that they now account for a very substantial proportion of the aid granted by Member States. However, Member States have in some cases moved away from the conditions for exemption (...)

The Magic Mountain Kletterhallen judgment illustrates rather well the wide margin of appreciation available to the Commission when it has to decide on the compatibility of an aid scheme causing only minor distortions of competition in the absence of guidelines, particularly in the amateur (...)

The judgment of 10 May 2016 is of significant interest as regards the concept of state resources. It recalls and clarifies the limits of the PreussenElektra case law (CJEU, 13 March 2001, case C-379/98) and is in line with the Essent (CJEU, 17 July 2008, case C-206/06) and Vent de Colère! (...)

The Court of First Instance had to re-examine a composition agreement accepted in 2004 by the Slovak tax authorities and approved by a national court, which the Commission had classified as state aid incompatible with the internal market and ordered to be recovered. In particular, the (...)

The two judgments of 4 February 2016 (in addition to the Heitkamp BauHolding v. Commission judgment which is discussed here, the Tribunal delivered another judgment on the same day: Trib. UE, 4 February 2016, GFKL Financial Services v. Commission. This last judgment will not be discussed below (...)

Elan, a Slovenian company active in the production and marketing of ski equipment and sea-going vessels such as yachts, was majority controlled by the Slovenian State through various companies. Approximately 75 % of its capital was held by 3 companies, KAD, DSU, and KAD-PPS, which were wholly (...)

During the financial crisis, the HSH Group, Germany’s fifth largest Landesbank, had, like many other financial institutions, to be recapitalised with State support and to obtain guarantees from the State against losses that could affect its portfolio. After provisionally approving these rescue (...)

In order to safeguard employment and the activity of a frozen vegetable production company located on its territory, a Swedish municipality purchased in 2008, then leased and resold two plots of land and a production unit through a real estate company owned by the municipality, FABV. On the (...)

The Court of First Instance annulled a decision to initiate the formal investigation procedure taken by the Commission in 2007 concerning the grant of public funds to Deutsche Post, a former public operator. The measures examined are various and old. They have been the subject of several (...)

The application of the principle of the prudent private investor in a market economy is often, in practice, a delicate exercise, particularly when it comes to land sales or purchases. The judgment of the Court of First Instance of 30 June 2015 confirms this. It recalls in particular the need (...)

Between 1995 and 2002, Italian producers exceeded the milk quotas allocated to them. They should therefore have paid additional levies to the European Union. However, Italy has asked the Council to authorise the introduction of an aid scheme for these producers to enable them to pay these (...)

The Court’s judgment of 6 May against Germany on failure to fulfil its obligations addresses a rather atypical question in relation to those generally apprehended by such judgments delivered on the basis of Article 108(2) TFEU. It is situated, so to speak, at the confluence of a problem of (...)

CJEU, 5 March 2015, Banco Privado Português and Massa Insolvente do Banco Privado Português, aff.C-667/13 In March 2009, in the context of the financial crisis, the Commission provisionally authorised, for a period of 6 months, a (low-interest) Portuguese state guarantee in favour of Banco (...)

Trib. EU, 8 Jan. 2015, Club Hotel Loutraki, Case T-58/13 In recent years, Greece has had to consider the privatisation of a number of enterprises, including traditional monopolies. Historically, the Public Prognostic Body for Football Prognosis (OPAP) had exclusive rights for the operation (...)

Commissioner, 18 Dec 2014, Press Release IP/14/2783 Following the modernisation of state aid and in particular the adoption of the new General Block Exemption Regulation, even more aid can be implemented without prior notification to the Commission. The Commission therefore considered it (...)

The Spanish rules identify 10 power stations which are obliged to obtain supplies of coal of Spanish origin, whose price is higher than that of other fuels, and to produce certain volumes of electricity from that coal. In order to alleviate the difficulties resulting for these power stations (...)

In recent months, the Court of First Instance has annulled several Commission decisions on the ground that the Commission erred in considering certain measures, in particular tax measures, to be selective. In its judgment of 25 November 2014, however, it annulled for the opposite reason a (...)

The Court of First Instance had to rule on the classification as new aid of a measure extending a preferential tariff, itself constituting existing aid, with the particularity that the extension was decided on a temporary basis by the interim relief judge. Whereas the Commission had considered (...)

In the context of a preliminary question, the Court was led to clarify the concept of imputability of a measure to the State and the meaning of its leading judgment on the subject, the Stardust judgment (judgment of the Court of 16 May 2002 in Case C-482/99 France v Commission). The atypical (...)

Taxes on gambling are generally very high. Greece has a long-standing tax on entries to casinos. However, it has been set at different levels in different casinos. Specifically, Greece has introduced a uniform 80% tax on casino entrance tickets and has set two different legal prices (€15 and (...)

The judgment of the Hansestadt Lübeck Tribunal may come as a great surprise for at least two reasons: on the one hand, it annuls a decision to initiate the formal investigation procedure, which is rare. Appeals against such decisions are quite often inadmissible and, where they are (...)

The previous Commission Communication on rescue and restructuring aid dated from 2004, and had been extended twice. It struck a balance between the need to support ailing companies that can restructure and become viable again and the need to limit the significant distortions of competition (...)

In the wake of the subprime crisis, WestLB ran into serious difficulties which forced it to resort to a hive-off structure to accommodate its risky mortgage assets. The Land of North Rhine-Westphalia had to guarantee the repayment of the bonds issued by the hive-off vehicle up to €5 billion, (...)

The objective pursued and the impact of change : From an a priori control to an a posteriori control ---- The new Block Exemption Regulation is a central element of the initiative to modernise state aid policy. The Commission has sought to limit the requirement of prior notification of aid for (...)

In the context of the financial crisis, the Dutch State has acquired several banking and commercial entities, including the Dutch subsidiary of Fortis Bank and certain business units of ABN Amro Holding. It decided to merge one of these units with the Dutch subsidiary of Fortis and to set up a (...)

At first instance, the Court of First Instance partially annulled the Commission’s decision of 18 November 2009 classifying a series of measures in favour of ING in the context of the banking crisis as compatible aid, taking into account the commitments given by the Dutch authorities (Trib. (...)

As part of its strategy to modernise state aid, the Commission adopted on 21 January 2014 new guidelines on state aid to promote risk financing investments, which will enter into force only on 1 July 2014 and replace the current Risk Capital Guidelines adopted in 2006 and amended in 2010. The (...)

The new ’de minimis’ regulation in the agricultural sector, adopted on 18 December 2013 and which entered into force on 1 January 2014, introduces in the agricultural sector amendments quite similar to those made to the de minimis regulation under ordinary law adopted on the same day (...)

In 2005, the Commission found exemptions from excise duty on mineral oils granted by France, Ireland and Italy to be incompatible with the common market. These exemptions had been authorised by the Council, on a proposal from the Commission, several years earlier in accordance with the (...)

In 2005, the Hungarian authorities and MOL, an oil and gas company, signed an agreement to extend the latter’s mining rights for 12 hydrocarbon deposits for which it had an operating licence but had not started production. Under the agreement, MOL was to pay a mining royalty applicable to all (...)

The Court had before it appeals against the judgments in Burgenland (TEU, 28 February 2012, Land Burgenland and Republic of Austria v Commission, Joined Cases T-268/08 and T-281/08) and GRAWE (TEU, 28 February 2012, Grazer Wechselseitige Versicherung v Commission, Case T-282/08).. The Court of (...)

The European Commission has approved industrial research and experimental development aid of around €27 million to a consortium led by Renault. The objective of the project is to reduce CO2 emissions in the road transport sector on a European scale. More specifically, the HYDIVU project aims (...)

This very interesting judgment of the Court of First Instance recalls and clarifies the contours of the concept of undertaking and economic activity, in particular where the activity under examination is secondary or even ancillary to a principal activity which is not economic. The facts at (...)

On 30 April 2013, the Commission launched a third public consultation on the review of the assessment criteria it uses to evaluate the compatibility of State aid to cinematographic and other audiovisual works. The deadline for replies, initially set at 28 May, was extended by one month. It (...)

The current Regional Aid Guidelines for 2007-2013 and the Commission Communication on the criteria for the in-depth assessment of regional aid to large investment projects were due to expire at the end of the year. The Commission is extending them until 30 June 2014 to allow Member States to (...)

The Court had to rule on appeal on the incentive effect of regional aid. In principle, aid without which the objective allegedly pursued by the recipient would have been pursued in any event cannot be declared compatible with the internal market. While the principle may seem fairly simple and (...)

The Commission has taken a final decision on the aid received by SNCM as public service compensation for the public service delegation covering maritime links between Corsica and Marseilles for the period 2007-2013. That decision, however, does not relate to the measures from which SNCM (...)

CJEU, 28 February 2013, Ellinika Nafpigeia v Commission, Case C-246/12 P The Greek shipyards HSY (otherwise known as Ellinika Nafpigeia AE, ’EN’) have appealed against thejudgment of the Court of First Instance of 15 March 2012 in Case T-21/08. (Trib UE, 15 March 2012, Ellinika Nafpigeia v (...)

Trib. UE, 27 February 2013, Nitrogenmuvek Vegyipari v Commission, Case T-387/11 In December 2008 and January 2009, the Hungarian artificial fertiliser company Nitrogenmuvek Vegyipari Zrt. received two State-guaranteed credits totalling approximately EUR 88 million from the Hungarian (...)

The Commission has authorised aid in the form of a guarantee of up to €18 billion for Crédit Immobilier de France (CIF) so as to enable the State to present within six months a plan for the orderly resolution of the group. This measure was made necessary by the immediate threat of a default (...)

CJEU, 24 January 2013, Frucona Kosice v Commission, Case C-73/11 P The judgment of the Court Frucona Kosice clarifies the duty of the Commission to state reasons when applying the market economy private creditor test to determine whether or not the partial waiver of a claim by the State (...)

The first state aid guidelines on state aid to broadband communication networks were issued in 2009 and were to be reviewed after three years in a rapidly evolving sector which is considered by the Commission as a particular priority. The EU’s Digital Agenda aims, among other things, to ensure (...)

CJEU, 19.12.12, Mitteldeutsche Flughafen and Flughafen Leipzig v Commission, C-288/11P The major judgment delivered by the Court of First Instance on 24 March 2011 in Joined Cases T-443/08 and T-455/08 will certainly be remembered.. For the first time, the Court of First Instance ruled on (...)

CJEU, 29.11.12, Kremikovtzi v. Ministar na ikonomikata, C-262/11 Reference was made to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling by a Bulgarian national court on the provisions applicable to the recovery of aid granted before accession in 2007 to the steel company Kremikovtzi (the only (...)

This consultation, launched on 20 June 2012 as part of the drive to modernise state aid rules, is accompanied by more specific consultations on guidelines applicable in certain sectors (some of which are set out below) to ensure the coherence of the new measures. In particular, public (...)

The Communication on State aid in the field of export credit insurance currently in force dates from 1997, although it has since been amended and its period of application extended several times. It is currently applicable until 31 December 2012. The Commission had already launched a first (...)

Launched on 16 July 2012, this consultation seeks the views of Member States and other interested parties on market developments regarding access to finance for SMEs (in particular as regards the provision of equity or loans). This revision is also in line with the objectives of the strategy (...)

This public consultation on the functioning of the Environmental State Aid Guidelines adopted in 2008 provides an opportunity for stakeholders to express their views on general support measures for environmental protection and on the use and effectiveness of aid granted by Member States. It is (...)

The purpose of this consultation is twofold: on the one hand, to reassess, in the light of the latest developments in the economic situation in the internal market, the adequacy of the current threshold of EUR 200 000 over a period of 3 fiscal years, below which aid is deemed not to distort (...)

Trib.UE, 10 July 2012, Smurfit Kappa Group plc v European Commission, Case T-304/08 This judgment of the Court of First Instance, delivered in respect of regional aid for the construction of a paper mill and a generator in the Region of North-East Brandenburg, is of particular interest for (...)

CJEU, 21.06.12, BNP Paribas and Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA (BNL) v. European Commission, case C-452/10 P The Court of Justice had to rule on an appeal against a judgment of the General Court of 1 July 2010 (Case T-335/08), commented on in the review Concurrences (No 4-2010, p. 174). The (...)

Eur. comm., Dec. 21, 2012, United Kingdom - Royal Mail Group, aff. SA.31479 The Commission’s decision on Royal Mail is twofold: firstly, it declares aid which leads the State to take over part of the retirement pensions due to former staff by the incumbent postal operator to be conditionally (...)

Trib. EU, 15 March 2012, Ellinika Nafpigeia v Commission, Case T-391/08 The Court dismissed an action for annulment of the Commission’s decision of 8 July 2008, by which the Commission had decided on 16 measures in favour of Hellenic Shipyards (’HSY’). A first series of actions against that (...)

Trib. EU, 7 March 2012, British Aggregates v Commission, Case T-210/02 RENV Following a very interesting appeal judgment of 22 December 2008 (ECJ, 22 December 2008, British Aggregates Association v. Commission, Case C-487/06 P), the Court of First Instance was called upon to review a (...)

GCEU, 2 March 2012, Netherlands and ING Groep v. Commission, joined cases T-29/10 and T-33/10 The Court of First Instance annuls a Commission decision which, on the basis of commitments on the part of the Netherlands, classified as compatible aid a change in the conditions for repayment of a (...)

European Commission, Framework on State aid to shipbuilding, OJ C 364, 14 December 2011, p. 9. On 7 December 2011, the Commission adopted a new Framework on State aid to shipbuilding, which entered into force on 1 January 2012 for a period of two years. The previous Framework expired at the (...)

Communication from the Commission on the application, from 1 January 2012, of State aid rules to support measures in favour of banks in the context of the financial crisis, OJ C 356, 6 December 2011, p. 7. On 1 December 2011, the Commission adopted a new Communication amending the rules on (...)

CJEU, 24 November 2011, Italy v Commission, Case C-458/09 P In 2005, the Commission adopted a decision declaring incompatible with the common market and ordering the recovery of aid. The tax incentive scheme in question was introduced in 2003 to encourage companies to go public. Italy (...)

GCEU, 10 November 2011, Elliniki Nafpigokataskevastiki a.o. v. Commission, Case T-384/08 A guarantee against recovery of incompatible unlawful aid granted in a highly complex factual context ---- In 2001, Greece decided to fully privatise Hellenic Shipyard SA (’HSY’), hitherto majority (...)

GCEU, 30 November 2011, Sniace v. Commission, Case T-238/09 The Sniace judgment of 30 November 2011 is the culmination of a long controversy punctuated by several judgments of the General Court and the Court of Justice and several Commission decisions. SNIACE is a Spanish company in the (...)

Trib. EU, 2 February 2012, Denki Kagaku Kogyo and Denka Chemicals v Commission, Case T-83/08, "Chloroprene Rubber Market". On 2 February 2008, the Court of First Instance of the European Union delivered a judgment in Case T-83/08 brought by several applicants seeking, principally, the (...)

CJEU, 6 October 2011, Commission v. Italy, Case C-302/09 This judgment on failure to fulfil obligations is based on the reasoning and solution of the judgment in Commission v Italy of 5 May 2011 (Case C-305/09), which itself was not far removed from the Commission v. Italy judgment of 22 (...)

Trib. EU, 27 September 2011, 3F v Commission, Case T-30/03 RENV The judgment of the Court of First Instance in Case 3F is of great interest for the determination of the existence of serious difficulties in the preliminary phase of the examination of an aid. While recalling the case-law on (...)

CJEU, 22 September 2011, Belgium v. Deutsche Post a.o., case C-148/09 P On 10 February 2009, the Court of First Instance annulled a Commission decision of 23 July 2003, taken at the end of the preliminary examination phase, not to raise objections to seven complex measures (six of which were (...)

CJEU, 15 September 2011, Germany v Commission, Case C-544/09 P Germany brought an appeal against thejudgment of the General Court of 6 October 2009 (Case T-21/06). The Court dismissed the action for annulment of a Commission decision of 9 November 2005 declaring aid for the switchover from (...)

Issue paper of the European Commission, 20 June 2011, Assessing State aid for films and other audiovisual works The Commission Communication on criteria for the assessment of State aid to cinematographic and other audiovisual works (commonly referred to as the "Cinema Communication") dates (...)

CJEU, 28 July 2011, Diputación Foral de Vizcaya and Others v Commission, Case C-471/09 P to C-476/09 P. One and a half months after the judgment of 9 June 2011 in Case C-465/09 P to C- 470/09 P v Vizcaya (judgment of 9 June 2011, Case C-465/09 P to C- 470/09 P), the Court of Justice of the (...)

CJEU, 21 July 2011, Alcoa Trasformazioni v Commission, Case C-194/09 P Alcoa’s action before the Court of First Instance concerned the annulment of a decision to initiate the formal investigation procedure. As the number of actions brought against the opening decisions remains limited, owing (...)

Trib. EU, 14 July 2011, Freistaat Sachsen v Commission, Case T-357/02 RENV The Court of First Instance had before it again a Commission decision declaring an aid scheme introduced by the Land of Saxony for small and medium-sized enterprises to be incompatible with the common market in part. (...)

CJEU, 14 July 2011, Commission v. Italy, Case C-303/09 This judgment on failure to fulfil obligations is based on the reasoning and solution of the judgment in Commission v Italy of 5 May 2011 (Case C-305/09), which itself was not far removed from the Commission v. Italy judgment of 22 (...)

CJEU, 9 June 2011, Diputación Foral de Vizcaya and Others v Commission, Case C-465/09 P to C-470/09 P. The Court had before it appeals brought by the Basque Territories against a judgment of the Court of First Instance of 9 September 2009 (Joined Cases T-30/01 to T-32/01 and T-86/02 to (...)

CJEU, 9 June 2011, Comitato "Venezia vuole vivere" and Others v Commission, cases C-71/09 P, C-73/09 P and C-76/09 P. The judgment of the Court of Justice "Hotel Cipriani and Others" dismisses the appeal against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 28 November 2008 (CFI, 28 (...)

European Commission, decision C (2011) 2609 final of 10 May 2011, Fourth UMTS mobile telephone licence - France, OJ C 196 of 5 July 2011 In January 2010, the French authorities awarded the fourth new-generation mobile telephony license (UMTS) to Free (a new entrant for this type of license) (...)

Trib. EU, 3 February 2011, Italy v. Commission, Case T-3/09 In 2002, the Council adopted Regulation No 1177/2002, which creates a temporary defensive mechanism for shipbuilding in view of the serious injury suffered by Community shipyards as a result of unfair Korean competition. This was an (...)

Trib. EU, 3 February 2011, Cantiere navale De Poli v Commission, Case T-584/08 This judgment of the Court of First Instance examines the action for annulment brought by a shipyard located in Venice against a Commission decision of 21 October 2008 declaring incompatible with the common market (...)

Eur. comm. dec. C(2010) 9454 final, 21 December 2010, Prolongation of the short-term export-credit insurance for SMEs with limited export turnover - Hungary, case N 483/2010 The Commission has authorised the prolongation for one year, until the end of December 2011, of a Hungarian scheme of (...)

The Netherlands granted investment aid to Holland Malt for the construction of a new malting plant which would have improved the quality of the beneficiary’s products and increased its production capacity. In deciding on the compatibility of the aid with the common market, the Commission (...)

CFI, 6 October 2009, FAB v Commission, Case T-8/06 This case concerns the same decision as the one contested in the case commented on above. T-21/06, but the appeal brought by FAB, while containing more pleas in law than that of Germany, was much weaker than the latter. The applicant, FAB, (...)

CJEU, 2 September 2010, Commission v. Scott, case C-290/07P The facts in the Scott case go back to 1987. In that year the French public authorities granted a private company, Scott, certain advantages, in particular the sale of a plot of land at a low price and a contribution to its (...)

DG Competition Staff working document, 30 April 2010, "The application of state aid rules to government guarantee schemes covering bank debt to be issued after 30 June 2010". In view of the overall improvement in the financial markets of the Member States, the Commission, after having (...)

– The Commission launches a consultation on the rules applicable to Services of General Economic Interests, 10 June 2010 The Commission has launched a public consultation on the application of its 2005 legislative package defining the criteria for compatibility of the public financing of (...)

Communication of the Commission on the review of the State aid status and the aid ceiling of the statistical effect regions in the following National regional State aid maps for the period 1.1.2011- 31.12.2013, OJ C222, 17.08.10, p. 2. Point 20 of the Guidelines on national regional aid for (...)

GCEU, 8 July 2010, Freistaat Sachsen and Land Sachsen-Anhalt v. Commission, T-396/08 In 2005, after negotiations with several airports, DHL decided to move its European airfreight hub from Brussels to Leipzig/Halle, starting in 2008. For its new location, DHL received regional aid, to which (...)

GCEU, 1st July 2010, ThyssenKrupp Acciai Speciali Terni v. Commission, case T-62/08 In 1962, Italy nationalized the electricity sector. This measure normally exempted companies that produced electricity mainly for self-generation (’autoproducers’), with the exception of those whose activity (...)

Trib. EU, 1 July 2010 Italy v Commission, Case T-53/08 Italy had also brought an action for annulment of the decision of 20 November 2007 declaring incompatible with the common market the aid received by the Terni companies in the form of an extension of their preferential electricity supply (...)

Eur. Comm., dec. C(2010)4453, 29 June 2010, Caja Castilla-La Mancha - Spain, NN 61/2009 Caja Castilla - La Mancha (CCM) is a Spanish savings bank, whose assets are fairly concentrated in the real estate sector. Due to the depreciation of its assets and the downgrading of its rating, in 2008 (...)

Trib. EU, 15 June 2010, Mediaset v Commission, Case T-177/07 In 2001, Italy launched the process of digitisation of television signals, with a view to completing the digital switchover and ending analogue transmission by the end of 2006. Since then, the planned date for the analogue (...)

The Commission has authorised the aid that Latvia intends to grant, through a tender procedure, for the construction and operation of a 400 MW thermal power plant between 2015 and 2025. This measure aims to ensure that available stocks will be sufficient to meet future electricity demand and (...)

– Report from the Commission, 27 May 2010, State Aid Scoreboard - Report on recent developments on crisis aid to the financial sector - Spring 2010 Update, COM(2010) 255 final The Commission’s State Aid Scoreboard concludes that there is a gradual return to market conditions in the banking (...)

CJEU, 20 May 2010, Todaro Nunziatina & C, aff. C-138/09 The Court was questioned by a court in Palermo on the interpretation and validity of two Commission decisions, one of 1995 and the other of 2003, concerning an aid scheme for employment in the Region of Sicily. In its 1995 decision, (...)

Eur. Comm, 20 May 2010, restructuring aid for Belgian insurance company Ethias, case N 256/2009 The Commission has authorised the €1.5 billion recapitalisation measure granted by Belgium as part of the restructuring of Ethias, a Belgian insurer that ran into serious difficulties in 2008 (...)

Eur. Comm., dec. C(2010) 3221, 19 May 2010, Germany-Further recapitalisation of Hypo Real Estate, case N 161/2010 On 19 May 2010, the Commission decided not to raise objections to a capital injection of €1.85 billion to the Hypo Real Estate Group (HRE). This rescue aid had been notified by (...)

– Eur. Comm, 12 May 2010, Swedish restructuring aid for Carnegie Investment Bank, case NN 18/2010 The Commission considers that Carnegie’s restructuring plan has provided a satisfactory response to the problems that led to Sweden granting a safeguard loan of SEK 2.4 billion (€225 million) in (...)

Eur. Comm., dec. C(2010) 2146 final, 14 April 2010, Energy saving by direct strip casting technology for light steels - aid to Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH - Germany, case N 451/2009 The European Commission has authorised Germany to grant aid of €19.1 million to a project for the (...)

Eur. Comm., dec. C(2010) 1245/2, 9 March 2010, Top Gas Recycling (TGR) Project - Aid to ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt GmbH - Germany, case N 450/2009 The European Commission has authorised investment aid of €30.18 million granted by Germany to the "Top Gas Recycling" (PGR) project of (...)

General Court, 3 March 2010, Freistaat Sachsen v. Commission, joined cases T-102/07 and T-120/07 Between March 2001 and December 2003 companies of the Biria Group, a bicycle manufacturer and distributor, received three financial contributions from the public authorities: a silent partnership (...)

Eur. Comm, 5 February 10, Recapitalisation measures in favour of FBN and ABN Amro Group, case C 11/09 [related to NN 2/10 (ex N 429/09) and N 19/10], OJ C95, 15 April 2010, p. 10 (Invitation to submit comments). By decision of 5 February 2010, the Commission temporarily approved €6.9 billion (...)

CJEU (ord.), 21 January 2010, Iride and Iride Energia v Commission, Case C-150/09 P The Court dismissed as partly manifestly inadmissible and partly manifestly unfounded an appeal against the judgment of the General Court of 11 February 2009 in Case T-25/07 Iride and Iride Energia v (...)

Eur. Comm. dec. of 18 November 2009 on the State aid implemented by the Netherlands for the plan for back-up facilities for illiquid assets and for the restructuring of ING, Case C 10/2009 (ex N 138/2009) ING provides banking, insurance and asset management services to more than 85 million (...)

CFI, 18 November 2009, Scheucher-Fleisch v. Commission, Case T-375/04 The context and subject matter of the dispute In 1992 Austria had introduced aid to encourage the production, processing and marketing of agricultural products by means of the ’AMA’ organic and quality labels. These aids (...)

CFI, 6 October 2009, Germany v. Commission, Case T-21/06 The many criticisms made by Germany of the economic approach followed by the Commission ---- For the first time, the Court of First Instance had to rule on the legality of a Commission decision based on the ’refined economic approach’ (...)

– CFI, 4 September 2009, Italian Republic v Commission, Case T – 211/05 Italy wanted to encourage companies to go public and in 2003 introduced a tax incentive scheme for companies listed on a European regulated market without prior notification of the aid measure to the Commission. At (...)

– Commission notice on current State aid recovery interest rates and reference/discount rates for 27 Member States applicable as from 1 August 2009, Published in accordance with Article 10 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 794/2004 of 21 April 2004, OJ C179, 1 August 2009, p. 7. On 1 August (...)

– EC Comm, 8 July 2009, Commission endorses Dutch "Groepsrentebox" tax break scheme , case C4/2007 The Commission concluded that the Dutch project to reduce the taxation of interest on intra-group loans under a scheme called "Groepsrentebox" does not constitute state aid. The Commission (...)

– Communication of 2 July 2009 from the Commission on the application of State aid rules to public service broadcasting as adopted by the Commission The European Commission has adopted a new Communication on State aid for the funding of public service broadcasters. The Communication (...)

– CFI, 1 July 2009, ISD Polska and Industrial Union of Donbass a.o. v. Commission, joined cases T-297/06 and T – 297/06 Between 2002 and 2005, the Polish steel producer Huta Czestochowa S.A. "(’HCz’) was restructured after having received State aid in various forms in the period 1997 (...)

– EC Comm, 24 March 2009, Commission orders Greece to recover 1.4 million of unlawful aid from vehicle producer ELVO, case C47/2005 The Commission found that certain tax exemptions granted by Greece to the vehicle manufacturer ELVO S.A. constitute illegal state aid. These measures (...)