Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Decision to close the file on a complaint lodged by an association of beneficiaries of an undertaking's mutual provident association objecting to State aid awarded to that undertaking - Decision not affecting the legal sphere of the association - Inadmissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para.)

Summary

An association formed by the beneficiaries of a mutual provident association of an undertaking integrated in the general social security scheme is not entitled to contest a decision by which the Commission closes the file on a complaint lodged by that association objecting to State aid allegedly awarded to that undertaking in the form, first, of the difference between the amount which the undertaking actually paid to the mutual association by way of contributions and the normal amount payable to the general social security scheme - which, owing to a reduction coefficient, it did not have to pay - and, secondly, of annulment of a guarantee which the undertaking was required to maintain in force so that the mutual association could always count on adequate cover for the benefits which it had to supply over a certain period.

The decision to close the file, which is in reality addressed to the Member State concerned, does not produce binding legal effects of such a nature as significantly to alter the legal situation of such an association, since, if repayment to the Member State were to be ordered, that State would, having regard to the national law in question, be under no obligation then to pay the contributions to the members of the association; moreover, there is nothing to support the view that the association could be revived.

Furthermore, an association of employees of an undertaking which allegedly benefited from a State aid in no way competes with that undertaking and cannot establish an interest in bringing proceedings on account of competitive effects.