Comisión de las Comunidades Europeas contra República Italiana.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Celex Number: 61993CJ0350
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:1995:96
• Date: 04 April 1995
• Docket Number: C-350/93
• Procedure Type: Recurso por incumplimiento – fundado
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)

Avis juridique important

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61993J0350

Judgment of the Court of 4 April 1995. - Commission of the European Communities v Italian Republic. - Failure to fulfil obligations - State aid incompatible with the common market - Recovery - Public holding. - Case C-350/93.

European Court reports 1995 Page I-00699

Summary
Parties
Grounds
Decision on costs
Operative part

Keywords

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1. Actions against Member States for failure to fulfil obligations ° Failure to comply with a Commission decision concerning State aid ° Validity of the decision resulting from dismissal of an action for annulment ° Plea in defence ° Absolute impossibility of implementation

(EEC Treaty, Art. 93(2), second subpara.)

2. State aid ° Commission decision declaring aid to be incompatible with the common market ° Difficulties in implementation ° Obligation on the Commission and the Member State to cooperate in seeking a solution consistent with the Treaty

(EEC Treaty, Arts 5 and 93(2), first subpara.)

3. State aid ° Commission decision declaring aid to be incompatible with the common market and ordering it to be discontinued ° Determination of the obligations of the Member State ° Obligation to recover ° Scope ° Re-establishment of the previously existing situation

(EEC Treaty, Art. 93(2), first subpara.)

Summary

1. When the Commission, on the basis of the second subparagraph of Article 93(2) of the Treaty, brings an action for failure to fulfil obligations against a Member State by reason of the latter' s failure to implement a decision declaring aid to be contrary to the Treaty and requiring it to be repaid, a decision against which an unsuccessful action for annulment had been brought, the only defence available to the Member State concerned is to plead that it was absolutely impossible for it to implement the decision properly.

2. A Member State which, in giving effect to a decision declaring that aid is incompatible with the common market, encounters unforeseen and unforeseeable difficulties, or becomes aware of consequences overlooked by the Commission, must submit those problems to the Commission for consideration, together with proposals for suitable amendments to the decision in question. In such cases, the Commission and the Member State must, by virtue of the rule imposing on the Member States and the Community institutions a duty of genuine cooperation which underlies, in particular, Article 5 of the Treaty, work together in good faith with a view to overcoming the difficulties whilst fully observing the Treaty provisions and, in particular, the provisions on aid.

3. The obligation to abolish aid incompatible with the common market which a Commission decision imposes on a Member State has as its purpose to re-establish the previously existing situation. That objective is attained once the recipient has repaid the aid in question, where appropriate with default interest, and thus forfeited the advantage which it had enjoyed over its competitors on the market.

Parties

In Case C-350/93,

Commission of the European Communities, represented by Antonino Abate, Principal Legal Adviser, and Vittorio Di Bucci, of the Legal Service, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the office of Georgios Kremlis, also of the Legal Service, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg,

applicant,

v

Italian Republic, represented by Professor Luigi Ferrari Bravo, Head of the Department for Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acting as Agent, and Pier Giorgio Ferri, Avvocato dello Stato, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the Italian Embassy, 5 Rue Marie-Adélaïde,

defendant,

APPLICATION for a...