Order of the General Court (Seventh Chamber) of 24 May 2011 – Nuova Agricast v Commission

(Case T-373/08)

Non-contractual liability – Aid scheme under Italian legislation – Scheme declared compatible with the common market – Transitional measure – Exclusion of certain undertakings – Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations – Sufficiently serious breach of a rule of law conferring rights on individuals – None – Clear lack of jurisdiction – Action manifestly devoid of any basis in law

1.                     Non-contractual liability – Conditions – Unlawfulness – Damage – Causal link – One of the conditions not satisfied – Claim for compensation dismissed in its entirety (Art. 288, second para., EC) (see paras 50, 92-93)

2.                     Non-contractual liability – Conditions – Sufficiently serious breach of a rule of law intended to confer rights on individuals – Discretion of the institution when adopting the measure – Need to be taken into consideration when examining liability (Art. 288, second para., EC) (see para. 72)

3.                     State aid – General aid scheme approved by the Commission – Identification of individual aids falling within the temporal scope of that scheme – Date of the legally binding measure requiring the competent national authority to grant the aid – Strict interpretation of derogations from the prohibition of State aid precluding the extension of the temporal scope of an approved aid scheme (Art. 87 EC) (see paras 76-78)

4.                     State aid – Commission decision not to raise objections to an aid scheme – Limitation of the temporal effects of the decision – Breach of principle of the protection of legitimate expectations – None – Breach of principle of equal treatment – None (Art. 87 EC) (see paras 84, 88)

Re:

Operative part