Action brought on 25 July 2014 — European Commission v Italian Republic

(Case C-367/14)

(2014/C 395/27)

Language of the case: Italian

Parties

Applicant: European Commission (represented by: G. Conte, D. Grespan and B. Stromsky, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Italian Republic

Form of order sought

The Commission claims that the Court should:

—

declare that, by failing to adopt all the measures necessary to ensure compliance with the judgment of the Court of Justice of 6 October 2011 in Case C-302/09 concerning recovery from the recipients of aid found to be unlawful and incompatible with the common market according to Commission Decision 2000/394/EC of 25 November 1999 on aid to firms in Venice and Chioggia, (1) the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under that decision and under Article 260 TFEU;

—

order the Italian Republic to pay to the Commission a lump sum, the amount of which is the product of multiplying a daily sum equivalent to EUR 24 578,40 by the number of days of continued infringement from the day on which the judgment in Case C-302/09 was delivered until the date of delivery of the judgment in the present case;

—

order the Italian Republic to pay the Commission a penalty on a six-monthly basis to be determined by the Commission, starting from six months after the date of delivery of the judgment in the present case, by multiplying the daily penalty of EUR 187 264 by 182,5 and by the percentage of the aid still to be recovered at the end of the six-month period on the basis of the amount of the aid to be recovered at the date on which the Court delivers judgment in the present case;

—	order the Italian Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The Italian Republic has failed to adopt all the measures necessary to recover the aid declared by the decision to be unlawful and incompatible, which it was required to do by the judgment in Case C-302/09, given that, almost three years after the declaratory judgment, an amount of EUR 33 032 000 (at least) still has to be recovered from 99 recipients, amounting to approximately 70 % of the total amount to be recovered.

Despite the introduction, after the declaratory judgment, of additional regulatory measures, a large part of the aid has yet to be recovered and no significant progress has been made in that regard.

Therefore, according to the Commission, the Court should rule that the Italian Republic has failed to comply with the judgment declaring that an infringement had been committed.

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(1)  Commission Decision of 25 November 1999 on aid to firms in Venice and Chioggia by way of relief from social security contributions under Laws Nos 30/1997 and 206/1995 (notified on 10 January 2000 under document number C(1999) 4268) (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ 2000 L 150, p. 50).