The EU Court of Justice finds that Spain failed to fulfil its obligations to recover the whole amount of the incompatible State aid (Telecom CLM)

The Impossibility of Proving the Absolute Impossibility to Recover Incompatible State Aid* Introduction It is rather impossible for Member States to prove that it is absolutely impossible to recover State aid that has been found by the Commission, and confirmed by EU courts, to be incompatible with the internal market. Yet, they try. This article reviews two recent judgments rendered on 29 April and 12 May 2021, respectively, that rejected a variety of arguments put forth by the Member States concerned to prove that it was absolutely impossible to recover immediately the whole amount of the incompatible aid.