Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. State aid — Commission expressly declining to require recovery of aid which is incompatible with the common market — Assessment of the need none the less to require recovery in light of the absence of notification by the Member State concerned — Jurisdiction of the national courts — (Art. 88 EC)

2. State aid — New State aid scheme — Definition — Transitional rules maintaining the effects of a scheme which is itself new — Whether covered — (Arts 87 EC and 88 EC)

3. Preliminary rulings — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Assessment as to whether a particular grant of aid is compatible with the common market — Excluded — (Arts 88 EC and 234 EC)

Summary

1. It is for the national court to decide whether new aid, regarded by the Commission as incompatible with the common market but the recovery of which it has expressly declined to require, should or should not be recovered in the absence of prior notification of that aid. In that connection, the national court will take account of the general principles of its internal law, including the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations and the circumstances of the case.

see paras 40-41

2. Transitional rules which maintain the effects of a new State aid scheme which has not been notified to the Commission and has been declared incompatible with Community law, in themselves constitute a new State aid scheme within the meaning of Articles 87 EC and 88 EC.

see para. 45, operative part 1

3. Assessment of the compatibility of State aid or of a State aid scheme with the common market falls within the exclusive competence of the Commission, subject to review by the Court. Consequently, a national court may not, in a request for a preliminary ruling pursuant to Article 234 EC, ask the Court for guidance on the compatibility with the common market of a given grant of State aid or a State aid scheme.

see para. 47, operative part 2