Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Actions for annulment - Action brought by an undertaking against an individual ECSC decision not addressed to it - Decision authorising the grant of benefits to competitors

(ECSC Treaty, Art. 33, second para.)

2. Actions for annulment - Action brought by an undertaking under the ECSC Treaty - Conditions of admissibility - Reference to case-law under the EC Treaty - Role of natural and legal persons in the pre-litigation procedure

(ECSC Treaty, Art. 33, second para.)

3. Actions for annulment - Action brought under the first paragraph of Article 33 CS - Pleas in law - Manifest failure by the Commission to observe the provisions of the Treaty or any rule of law relating to its application - Meaning - Limits on the Court's power of appraisal - Observed of its own motion

(ECSC Treaty, Art. 33, first para.)

4. ECSC Treaty - Concentrations - Prior authorisation - Obligation on the Commission to avoid inconsistencies that might arise in the implementation of the various provisions of Community law - Obligation to appraise aid inherent in the merger in the course of that merger

(ECSC Treaty, Art. 66(2))

Summary

1. The second paragraph of Article 33 of the ECSC Treaty, which is worded differently from the second paragraph of Article 173 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, the second paragraph of Article 230 EC), authorises undertakings to institute proceedings for the annulment of decisions or recommendations concerning them which are individual in character. An undertaking is concerned by a Commission decision that allows benefits to be granted to one or more undertakings which are in competition with it.

( see para. 59 )

2. Owing to the specific features of the ECSC regime, the conditions for the admissibility of an action for annulment brought by an undertaking under the ECSC Treaty are less strict than those for a similar action under the EC Treaty. However, the case-law of the Court of Justice on the EC Treaty according to which, when the Court examines the admissibility of an action it attaches weight to the part played by the natural or legal persons in the administrative procedure contains findings which may also be relevant to an assessment of the admissibility of an action for annulment brought under the ECSC Treaty.

( see paras 76, 79 )

3. As regards the evaluation of the situation resulting from the economic facts or circumstances underlying the contested decision, the Court, in conducting its review under Article 33 of the ECSC Treaty, must confine itself to ascertaining whether the Commission misused its powers or manifestly failed to observe the provisions of the ECSC Treaty or any rule of law relating to its application. The term manifest in Article 33 presupposes that the failure to observe legal provisions is so serious that it appears to arise from an obvious error in the evaluation, having regard to the provisions of the ECSC Treaty, of the situation in respect of which the decision was taken.

( see para. 87 )

4. The Commission must, as a matter of principle, avoid inconsistencies that might arise in the implementation of the various provisions of Community law. That obligation on the Commission to maintain consistency between the provisions of the ECSC Treaty relating to State aid and other provisions of the Treaty is all the more necessary when the other provisions also have undistorted competition in the common market as their aim.

It follows in particular that, when adopting a decision on the compatibility of aid with the common market, the Commission must be aware of the risk of individual traders undermining competition in the common market. It also follows that in adopting a decision on the compatibility of a concentration between undertakings with the common market the Commission cannot ignore the effect which the grant of State aid to those undertakings has on the maintenance of effective competition in the relevant market. The latter obligation does not, however, mean that the Commission, when adopting a decision on the compatibility with the common market of a concentration between undertakings at the end of a specific procedure, must necessarily await the outcome of the parallel, but independent, procedure in which the compatibility of a State aid with the common market is examined.

Moreover, Article 66(2) of the ECSC Treaty, which provides that the Commission must assess the proposed transaction, implies that the Commission is required to assess the transaction as a whole, not merely one part of the transaction.

( see paras 112-115, 124 )