Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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Actions for annulment ° Actionable measures ° Measures producing legal effects ° Decision to subject State aid to the procedure for examining the compatibility of new aid with the common market

(EEC Treaty, Arts 93(3) and 173)

Summary

A Commission decision to initiate the procedure under Article 93(2) of the Treaty for examining the compatibility of a State aid with the common market, entailing the hearing of the parties, which results in the automatic obligation to suspend payment of the aid, produces legal effects since it involves a choice by the Commission between classification as existing aid or new aid to which different procedures apply. Such a decision is not moreover simply a preparatory step, in which case an action for annulment of the decision in which the procedure culminates would ensure protection against any unlawfulness. The irreversible consequences of a delay in paying aid due to the prohibition in the final sentence of Article 93(3) could not be eradicated by a decision that the aid is compatible with the Treaty or by proceedings brought against a Commission decision holding that it is incompatible. In addition, where the measures categorized by the Commission as new aid have been implemented, the legal effects of that categorization are definitive in the sense that it is not possible to regularize ex post facto the measures implementing the aid contravening the prohibition laid down in the final sentence of Article 93(3).

For that reason such a decision is an actionable measure under Article 173 of the Treaty.