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Document 62011CN0547

Case C-547/11: Action brought on 28 October 2011 — European Commission v Italian Republic

SL C 13, 14.1.2012, p. 6–7 (BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV)

14.1.2012   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 13/6

Action brought on 28 October 2011 — European Commission v Italian Republic

(Case C-547/11)

2012/C 13/13

Language of the case: Italian

Parties

Applicant: European Commission (represented by: B. Stromsky and D. Grespan, Agents)

Defendant: Italian Republic

Form of order sought

The Commission claims that the Court should:

—

declare that:

—

by failing to take, within the prescribed period, all the measures necessary to recover the State aid declared unlawful and incompatible with the internal market by Commission Decision 2006/323/EC of 7 December 2005 concerning the exemption from excise duty on mineral oils used as fuel for alumina production in Gardanne, in the Shannon region and in Sardinia, respectively implemented by France, Ireland and Italy (‘Decision 2006/323’), the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 5 and 6 of that decision and under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; and

—

by failing to take, within the prescribed period, all the measures necessary to recover the State aid declared unlawful and incompatible with the internal market by Commission Decision 2007/375/EC of 7 February 2007 concerning the exemption from excise duty on mineral oils used as fuel for alumina production in Gardanne, in the Shannon region and in Sardinia, implemented by France, Ireland and Italy respectively (‘Decision 2007/375’), the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 4 and 6 of that decision and under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;

—

order Italy to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The period for implementing Decision 2006/323 expired on 8 February 2006. The period for implementing Decision 2007/375 expired on 8 June 2007.

To date, the Italian Republic has not yet undertaken the full recovery of the aid declared unlawful by the decisions in question or informed the Commission that recovery has taken place. Moreover, the legal difficulties relied on by Italy as justification for the delay in implementing those decisions are not such as to make recovery absolutely impossible in accordance with the case-law of the Court.

The Commission complains next that, in breach of the obligation under the decisions in question to communicate information, Italy was late in informing it of the progress of the national procedures for implementing the decisions.

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