Existing aid: The Court of Justice of the European Union confirms that an increase in the budget and the extension of an existing aid scheme constitutes new aid, which can however be considered retroactively compatible if it fulfils all the conditions of an exemption regulation (Azienda Sanitaria Provinciale di Catania)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. 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 1989, the Region of Sicily had successively adopted several legislative measures providing for the payment of compensation to the owners of animals slaughtered because they were suffering from certain diseases. These successive measures had been