Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Actions for annulment - Jurisdiction of the Community judicature - Claim in an application that a direction be issued to an institution - Inadmissible

(Arts 230 EC and 233 EC)

2. State aid - Prohibited - Derogations - Aid that may be considered compatible with the common market - Discretion of the Commission - Judicial review - Limits - Legality to be assessed on the basis of the information existing at the time when the decision was adopted

(EC Treaty, Art. 92(3) (now, after amendment, Art. 87(3) EC))

3. State aid - Prohibited - Derogations - Planning and development work commenced before the date of notification of the aid - Whether the criterion for inducement satisfied - To be assessed in the light of the circumstances of each case

(EC Treaty, Art. 92(3) (now, after amendment, Art. 87(3) EC))

4. Actions for annulment - Pleas in law - Manifest error of assessment - Error which has no decisive effect on the outcome - Plea inoperative

Summary

$$1. In an action for annulment based on Article 230 EC, it is not for the Community judicature to issue directions to the institutions. If the Court annuls the contested measure, it is then for the administration concerned to adopt, in accordance with Article 233 EC, the necessary measures to comply with the judgment annulling that measure.

( see para. 17 )

2. The Commission enjoys a broad power of assessment in the application of Article 92(3) of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 87(3) EC), which involves complex economic and social appraisals. Since it is not for the Community Court to substitute its own economic assessment for that of the author of the decision, the Court must, in reviewing a decision adopted in such a context, confine its review to determining whether the Commission complied with the rules governing procedure and the provision of the statement of reasons, whether the facts on which the contested finding was based are accurately stated and whether there has been any manifest error of assessment or any misuse of powers. Furthermore, the legality of a Community measure falls to be assessed on the basis of the elements of fact and of law existing at the time when the measure was adopted and the complex assessments made by the Commission must be examined solely on the basis of the information available to it at the time when those assessments were made.

( see paras 32-33 )

3. An undertaking which may potentially be the recipient of new State aid can have no certainty of actually receiving it before the authorities of the Member State have notified that aid to the Commission and the Commission has declared it to be compatible with the common market. The fact that aid is notified has no effect, in itself, on its compatibility with the common market. Thus, notification of the aid in no way removes the uncertainty as to its approval at Community level. So long as the Commission has not taken a decision approving it and so long as the period for bringing an action against that decision has not expired, the recipient cannot be certain as to the lawfulness of the proposed aid which alone is capable of giving rise on the part of the recipient to a legitimate expectation. Moreover, the absence of absolute certainty as to the grant of aid and, with it, of legitimate expectations, at the time when the potential beneficiary decides to proceed with restructuring does not mean that the assurances given previously by national or regional authorities had no effect as an inducement.

In those circumstances, the Commission cannot infer from the mere fact that the development was commenced before the date of notification of the aid intended to finance it that that aid does not satisfy the criterion concerning inducement. It is for the Commission to assess the circumstances of each case in order to determine whether the prospect of the grant of the aid is sufficiently likely to satisfy the criterion as to inducement.

( see paras 41-43 )

4. In an action for annulment, a plea based on a manifest error of assessment is inoperative and accordingly would not be sufficient to warrant annulment of the contested decision if, in the particular circumstances of the case, it could not have had a decisive effect on the outcome.

( see para. 49 )