Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Community law - Interpretation - Acts of the institutions - Statement of reasons - Account to be taken

2 State aid - Prohibition - Derogations - Discretion of the Commission - Commission decision making authorization to pay aid dependent on prior repayment by the undertaking concerned of unlawful aid previously received - Condition laid down in order to prevent an accumulation of aid from adversely affecting trading conditions to an extent contrary to the common interest - Decision within the power of the Commission

(EC Treaty, Arts 92(3) and 93(2))

3 Appeals - Pleas in law - Mere repetition of the pleas in law and arguments submitted to the Court of First Instance - Inadmissibility - Appeal dismissed

(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Arts 49 and 51; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 112(1)(c))

Summary

4 The operative part of an act is indissociably linked to the statement of reasons for it, so that, when it has to be interpreted, account must be taken of the reasons which led to its adoption.

5 The first subparagraph of Article 93(2) of the Treaty makes the Commission responsible for implementing, subject to review by the Court, a special procedure involving the constant review and monitoring of aid which Member States intend to introduce. In particular, under Article 92(3) of the Treaty the Commission enjoys a wide discretion, and the exercise of that discretion involves assessments of an economic and social nature which must be made within a Community context. When the Commission examines the compatibility of a State aid with the common market, it must take all the relevant factors into account, including, where appropriate, the circumstances already considered in a prior decision and the obligations which that decision may have imposed on a Member State.

Accordingly, the Commission does not exceed the limits of the discretion which it enjoys where it adopts a decision authorizing aid which a Member State is proposing to grant to an undertaking, but suspends payment thereof until the undertaking has repaid previous unlawful aid on account of the cumulative effect of the aids in question.

6 Under Article 51 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice and Article 112(1)(c) of the Rules of Procedure, an appeal must give a precise indication of the aspects of the judgment appealed against which are complained of, together with the legal arguments put forward in support of the claim that it should be set aside.

That requirement is not satisfied by pleas which merely repeat arguments already put to the Court of First Instance and rejected by it, without attempting to prove that it erred in law in its assessment of the facts. In practice, such pleas seek merely to have the facts re-examined, which falls outside the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice.