20.6.2009   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 141/22

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set aside the judgment of the Court of First Instance (Third Chamber, Extended Composition) of 18 December 2008, notified to the Commission on 5 January 2009, in Joined Cases T-211/04 and T-215/04 Government of Gibraltar and United Kingdom v Commission;

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reject the applications for annulment lodged by the Government of Gibraltar and by the United Kingdom; and

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order the Governemnt of Gibraltar and the United Kingdom to pay the costs;

alternatively,

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refer the cases back to the Court of First Instance for reconsideration; and

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reserve the costs of the proceedings at first instance and on appeal.

The Court of First Instance erred in assessing the relationship between Article 87(1) EC and the competence of the Member States in tax matters;

The Court of First Instance erred in interpreting and applying Article 87(1) EC by imposing an unjustified constraint on the assessment of suspected State aid measures;

The Court of First Instance erred in interpreting and applying Article 87(1) EC by imposing an unjustified constraint on the exercise of review powers in respect of the identification of a common or ‘normal’ tax system;

The Court of First Instance erred in interpreting and applying Article 87(1) EC by considering that the common or ‘normal’ tax system may result from the application of different techniques to different taxpayers;

The Court of First Instance erred in interpreting and applying Article 87(1) EC by considering that the Commission had failed to identify the common or ‘normal’ tax regime and to perform the required assessment to show the selective character of the measures at stake;