Textilwerke Deggendorf GmbH (TWD) contra Comisión de las Comunidades Europeas y República Federal de Alemania.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)
• Writing for the Court: Jann
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:1997:241
• Docket Number: C-355/95
• Date: 15 May 1997
• Procedure Type: Recurso de casación - inadmisible

Avis juridique important

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61995J0355

Judgment of the Court of 15 May 1997. - Textilwerke Deggendorf GmbH (TWD) v Commission of the European Communities and Federal Republic of Germany. - State aid - Commission decisions suspending payment of certain aids until previous unlawful aid has been repaid. - Case C-355/95 P.

European Court reports 1997 Page I-02549

Summary
Parties
Grounds
Decision on costs
Operative part

Keywords

1 Community law - Interpretation - Acts of the institutions - Statement of reasons - Account to be taken

2 State aid - Prohibition - Derogations - Discretion of the Commission - Commission decision making authorization to pay aid dependent on prior repayment by the undertaking concerned of unlawful aid previously received - Condition laid down in order to prevent an accumulation of aid from adversely affecting trading conditions to an extent contrary to the common interest - Decision within the power of the Commission

(EC Treaty, Arts 92(3) and 93(2))

3 Appeals - Pleas in law - Mere repetition of the pleas in law and arguments submitted to the Court of First Instance - Inadmissibility - Appeal dismissed

(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Arts 49 and 51; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 112(1)(c))

Summary

4 The operative part of an act is indissociably linked to the statement of reasons for it, so that, when it has to be interpreted, account must be taken of the reasons which led to its adoption.

5 The first subparagraph of Article 93(2) of the Treaty makes the Commission responsible for implementing, subject to review by the Court, a special procedure involving the constant review and monitoring of aid which Member States intend to introduce. In particular, under Article 92(3) of the Treaty the Commission enjoys a wide discretion, and the exercise of that discretion involves assessments of an economic and social nature which must be made within a Community context. When the Commission examines the compatibility of a State aid with the common market, it must take all the relevant factors into account, including, where appropriate, the circumstances already considered in a prior decision and the obligations which that decision may have imposed on a Member State.

Accordingly, the Commission does not exceed the limits of the discretion which it enjoys where it adopts a decision authorizing aid which a Member State is proposing to grant to an undertaking, but suspends payment thereof until the undertaking has repaid previous unlawful aid on account of the cumulative effect of the aids in question.

6 Under Article 51 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice and Article 112(1)(c) of the Rules of Procedure, an appeal must give a precise indication of the aspects of the judgment appealed against which are complained of, together with the legal arguments put forward in support of the claim that it should be set aside.

That requirement is not satisfied by pleas which merely repeat arguments already put to the Court of First Instance and rejected by it, without attempting to prove that it erred in law in its assessment of the facts. In practice, such pleas seek merely to have the facts re-examined, which falls outside the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice.

Parties

In Case C-355/95 P,

Textilwerke Deggendorf GmbH (TWD), a company incorporated under German law, established in Deggendorf, Germany, represented by Walter Forstner, Lutz Radtke and Karl-Heinz Schupp, Rechtsanwälte, Deggendorf, assisted by Michael Schweitzer, Professor at the University of Passau, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the office of M. Stein, Bayerische Landesbank International SA, 7-9 Boulevard Royal,

appellant,

APPEAL against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (Third Chamber, Extended Composition) of 13 September 1995 in Joined Cases T-244/93 and T-486/93 TWD Textilwerke Deggendorf v Commission [1995] ECR II-2265, seeking to have that judgment set aside, the other party to the proceedings being: Commission of the European Communities, represented by Paul F. Nemitz and Anders Jessen, of its Legal Service, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, of its Legal Service, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg,

THE COURT,

composed of: G.C. Rodríguez Iglesias, President, G.F. Mancini, J.C. Moitinho de Almeida, J.L. Murray and L. Sevón (Presidents of Chambers), C.N. Kakouris, P.J.G. Kapteyn, C. Gulmann, P. Jann (Rapporteur), H. Ragnemalm and M. Wathelet, Judges,

Advocate General: G. Tesauro,

Registrar: R. Grass,

having regard to the Report of the Judge-Rapporteur,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 10 December 1996,

gives the following

Judgment

Grounds

1 By application lodged at the Registry of the Court of Justice on 20 November 1995, Textilwerke Deggendorf GmbH (TWD) (hereinafter `TWD') brought an appeal pursuant to Article 49 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 13 September 1995 in Joined Cases T-244/93 and T-486/93 TWD Textilwerke Deggendorf v Commission [1995] ECR II-2265 (hereinafter `the contested judgment'), in which that Court dismissed its applications for annulment of Article 2 of Commission Decision 91/391/EEC of 26 March 1991 on aid granted by the German Government to Deggendorf GmbH, a producer of polyamide and polyester yarns located in Deggendorf (Bavaria) (OJ 1991 L 215, p. 16, hereinafter `the TWD II decision'), and of Article 2 of Commission Decision 92/330/EEC of 18 December 1991 on aid by Germany to the Deggendorf textile works (OJ 1992 L 183, p. 36, hereinafter `the TWD III decision').

2 As regards the facts of the case, the contested judgment states:

`1 During the period from 1981 to 1983 the applicant, TWD Textilwerke Deggendorf GmbH (hereafter "TWD"), a company active in the synthetic fibre sector, received State aids, initially not notified to the Commission, consisting of a subsidy of DM 6.12 million from the Federal German Government and a loan on preferential terms of DM...