Keywords
Summary

Keywords

State aid – Prohibition – Exceptions – Aid categories, set out in legislation, which can be regarded as compatible with the common market – Regulation No 70/2001 on aid to small and medium-sized enterprises

(Commission Regulation No 70/2001, Art. 9(2), fourth sentence)

Summary

The case-law according to which an implementing regulation must be given, if possible, an interpretation consistent with the provisions of the basic regulation does not apply in the case of a provision of an implementing regulation whose meaning is clear and unambiguous and therefore requires no interpretation.

It is clear from the wording of the fourth sentence of Article 9(2) of Regulation No 70/2001 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to State aid to small and medium-sized enterprises that the Commission is entitled to request Member States to provide it with all the information which it considers necessary to assess whether the conditions of the exemption regulation have been complied with. It follows necessarily from the clear and unambiguous wording of that provision that the Commission is entitled to request a Member State to provide it with information in all circumstances.

Furthermore, with regard to the clear terms of that provision there can be no doubt as to the precise extent of the Commission’s powers. The Member State concerned cannot therefore plead infringement of the principle of protection of legitimate expectations in order to limit the extent of the powers afforded to the Commission under that provision.

In that regard, even if, between the entry into force of that regulation and the requests for information at the origin of the contested decision, the Commission carried out checks only where there was doubt about compliance with the conditions of that regulation, there can be no legitimate expectation that an existing situation which is capable of being altered by the Commission in the exercise of its discretionary power will be maintained.

(see paras 22-24, 40, 42)