Case C-129/12

Magdeburger Mühlenwerke GmbH

v

Finanzamt Magdeburg

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Finanzgericht des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt)

‛Regional aid scheme — Investment in the processing and marketing of agricultural products — Commission decision — Incompatibility with the internal market — Abolition of incompatible aid — Time at which aid is granted — Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber), 21 March 2013

State aid — Commission decision declaring an aid scheme incompatible with the common market — Obligation not to grant aid after the expiration of the period provided for — Aid decided upon before the period but paid after the expiration of that period — Determination of the legality thereof according to the date on which the aid is granted under applicable national law — Possible legitimate expectation on the part of beneficiaries of aid decided upon before the period — Limits

(Art. 108(2), TFEU; Commission Decision 1999/622/EC, Art. 2)

Article 2 of Decision 1999/183 concerning State aid for the processing and marketing of German agricultural products which might be granted on the basis of existing regional aid schemes must be interpreted as precluding the grant of investment aid concerning milling in relation to which the binding investment decision was made before the expiration of the period afforded to the Federal Republic of Germany to comply with that decision or before the publication in the German Tax Journal of the measures taken to that effect, when the delivery of the capital asset and the determination and disbursement of the subsidy took place only after the expiration of that period or that publication, if the time at which an investment subsidy is considered to be granted is only after the expiration of that period.

Aid must be considered to be granted at the time that the right to receive it is conferred on the beneficiary under the applicable national rules. It is for the referring court to determine, on the basis of applicable national law, when that aid must be considered to be granted. To that end, that court must take account of all the conditions laid down by national law for obtaining the aid in question

(see paras 40, 41, 49, operative part)

Case C-129/12

Magdeburger Mühlenwerke GmbH

v

Finanzamt Magdeburg

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Finanzgericht des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt)

‛Regional aid scheme — Investment in the processing and marketing of agricultural products — Commission decision — Incompatibility with the internal market — Abolition of incompatible aid — Time at which aid is granted — Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber), 21 March 2013

State aid — Commission decision declaring an aid scheme incompatible with the common market — Obligation not to grant aid after the expiration of the period provided for — Aid decided upon before the period but paid after the expiration of that period — Determination of the legality thereof according to the date on which the aid is granted under applicable national law — Possible legitimate expectation on the part of beneficiaries of aid decided upon before the period — Limits

(Art. 108(2), TFEU; Commission Decision 1999/622/EC, Art. 2)

Article 2 of Decision 1999/183 concerning State aid for the processing and marketing of German agricultural products which might be granted on the basis of existing regional aid schemes must be interpreted as precluding the grant of investment aid concerning milling in relation to which the binding investment decision was made before the expiration of the period afforded to the Federal Republic of Germany to comply with that decision or before the publication in the German Tax Journal of the measures taken to that effect, when the delivery of the capital asset and the determination and disbursement of the subsidy took place only after the expiration of that period or that publication, if the time at which an investment subsidy is considered to be granted is only after the expiration of that period.

Aid must be considered to be granted at the time that the right to receive it is conferred on the beneficiary under the applicable national rules. It is for the referring court to determine, on the basis of applicable national law, when that aid must be considered to be granted. To that end, that court must take account of all the conditions laid down by national law for obtaining the aid in question

(see paras 40, 41, 49, operative part)