Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Preliminary rulings – Jurisdiction of the Court – Limits – Question manifestly without relevance

2. Preliminary rulings – Jurisdiction of the Court – Limits – Jurisdiction of the national court – Establishment and assessment of the facts of the dispute

(Art. 234 EC)

3. State aid – Prohibition – Exceptions – Aid scheme intended to promote training and job creation in a region

(Art. 88(3) EC)

4. State aid – Existing aid and new aid – Classification of new aid

(Art. 88 EC; Council Regulation No 659/1999, Art. 1( c))

5. State aid – Prohibition – Exceptions – Aid scheme providing for a maximum budgetary provision

6. State aid – Planned aid – Notification to the Commission – Commission Decision not to raise objections – Default interest in the event of late payment of aid with effect from the date of the Commission’s decision

(Art. 88(3) EC)

Summary

1. The Court may decide not to give a preliminary ruling determining the validity of a Community act where it is quite obvious that that determination, requested by the national court, bears no relation to the actual facts of the main action or its purpose.

(see para. 16)

2. It is solely for the national court, before which the dispute has been brought, and which must assume responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, to determine in the light of the particular circumstances of the case both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable it to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which it submits to the Court.

(see para. 25)

3. A decision of the Commission not to raise objections to an aid scheme to promote training and job creation in a region and consisting, firstly, of the grant of a subsidy for the remuneration of workers recruited on training and work-experience contracts for the entire duration of those contracts, on condition that the workers were recruited during a particular period and, secondly, of the grant of a degressive subsidy for the remuneration of workers if such a contract is converted into an open-ended contract within the first three years of that contract, on condition that that conversion took place during the same period and concerns workers recruited before that period, must be interpreted as having accepted, as being compatible with the common market, an aid scheme composed of those two measures, which may not be cumulative and the event giving rise to which, that is to say, the recruitment of a worker or the conversion of the contract into an open-ended contract, must have taken place before expiry of that period, but the payments to which they give rise may be made after that date, on condition that the applicable national budgetary and financial rules do not preclude that and that the budgetary provision approved by the Commission of the European Communities is not exceeded.

(see paras 29-30, 34-38, operative part 1)

4. Article 1 of Decision 2003/195 on the scheme by which Italy plans to aid employment in the Region of Sicily must be interpreted as meaning that the aid scheme by which Italy sought to extend the period of application of an aid scheme previously approved for the promotion of training and job creation constitutes new aid distinct from that in respect of which the Commission had given its approval. The Decision therefore precludes the grant of subsidies in respect of any employment of workers recruited under training or work-experience contracts or conversion of training and work-experience contracts into open-ended contracts after the expiry of the aid scheme approved by the Commission.

Since measures taken after the entry into force of the Treaty to grant or alter aid, whether the alterations relate to existing aid or to initial plans notified to the Commission, must be regarded as new aid, Italy, by providing for both an increase in the budget allocated to the aid scheme and a two-year extension of the period during which the conditions for grant of that aid were applicable, created new aid distinct from the aid referred to in the Decision not to raise objections to the preceding aid scheme.

(see paras 46-47, operative part 2)

5. In the case of an aid scheme approved by the Commission and providing for a budgetary provision, it is for the Member State concerned to determine which party to the proceedings bears the burden of proving that the budgetary provision allocated for the aid measures referred to has not been exhausted.

When there is no Community legislation on the matter, it is for the internal legal order of each Member State to define the detailed arrangements and rules of evidence intended to establish that the budgetary provision allocated to the aid scheme authorised by the Commission Decision has not been exceeded.

However, it should be emphasised that the national authorities must be in a position to justify, in particular at the request of the Commission, the status of payments made under an aid scheme where the Commission has ruled in respect of a scheme for which the Member State has provided for a maximum budgetary provision that may be disbursed individually to beneficiaries of that scheme.

(see paras 54-55, operative part 3)

6. The first sentence of Article 88(3) EC imposes on the Member States an obligation to inform the Commission of any plans to grant or alter aid. Under the second sentence of Article 88(3) EC, if the Commission considers that the plan notified is not compatible with the common market within the meaning of Article 87 EC, it is without delay to initiate the procedure provided for in Article 88(2) EC. Under the final sentence of Article 88(3) EC, the Member State that envisages granting aid may not put its proposed measures into effect until that procedure has resulted in a final decision of the Commission.

The prohibition laid down by that article is intended to ensure that the aid measures do not come into effect before the Commission has had a reasonable period in which to consider the plan in detail and, if necessary, to initiate the procedure provided for in Article 93(2).

A Commission Decision not to raise objections to an aid scheme renders the aid scheme compatible with the common market only with effect from the date of that decision, so that any late payment of the aid can give rise to the calculation of interest only in respect of amounts of aid due after that date.

The amount of statutory interest that may be due in the event of late payment of the aid authorised by the Commission Decision for the period following that decision is not to be included in the amount of the budgetary provision authorised by that decision. The rate of interest and the detailed arrangements for applying that rate fall within the scope of national law.

(see paras 58-62, operative part 4)