Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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Aid granted by States - Recovery of illegal aid - Application of national law - Aid granted contrary to the procedural rules in Article 93 of the Treaty - Possible legitimate expectations of recipients - Protection - Conditions and limits - Interests of the Community to be taken into consideration

( EEC Treaty, first subparagraph of Art . 93(2 ) )

Summary

Community law does not preclude national legislation from protecting legitimate expectations and legal certainty in connection with the recovery of national aid granted contrary to Community law .

However, in view of the mandatory nature of the supervision of State aid by the Commission under Article 93 of the Treaty, undertakings to which an aid has been granted may not, in principle, entertain a legitimate expectation that the aid is lawful unless it has been granted in compliance with the procedure laid down in that article .

It is true that a recipient of illegally granted aid is not precluded from relying on exceptional circumstances on the basis of which it had legitimately assumed the aid to be lawful and thus declining to refund that aid . If such a case is brought before a national court, it is for that court to assess the material circumstances and, if necessary, seek a preliminary ruling on interpretation from the Court of Justice .

However, a Member State whose authorities have granted aid contrary to the procedural rules laid down in Article 93 of the Treaty may not rely on the legitimate expectations of recipients in order to justify a failure to comply with the obligation to take the steps necessary to implement a Commission decision instructing it to recover the aid .

Nor may such a Member State rely, as making it absolutely impossible to implement such a decision, on the obligations to which the competent administrative authority is subject under the particular rules governing the protection of legitimate expectations contained in a national provision which lays down a time-limit within which an administrative act granting a benefit may be revoked . Such a provision must be applied in such a way that the recovery required by Community law is not rendered practically impossible and the interests of the Community are taken fully into consideration .