Spanje gedaagd voor Hof van Justitie wegens niet-terugvordering van onterecht gegeven staatssteun aan Baskenland (en)

The European Commission has decided to refer Spain to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failure to comply with three state aid decisions, which ordered the recovery of illegal fiscal aid granted to newly established companies in three Basque provinces.

(See IP/02/1875). Almost four years after the adoption of these decisions, Spain has still not taken any concrete measures to recover the unlawful aid from the beneficiaries.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes i, said "I intend to take a very strict approach with Member States that fail to comply with state aid recovery decisions. This is essential for ensuring the credibility of our state aid policy."

On 20 December 2001, the Commission adopted three decisions ordering Spain to terminate three illegal fiscal aid schemes put into effect by the Basque provinces and to recover any aid that had already been granted under these schemes. According to state aid rules, Spain should have taken all the necessary measures available in its national law without any delay, in order to obtain the immediate and effective execution of these decisions. It should also have informed the Commission of the measures taken to implement the decisions.

Four years after the adoption of the three decisions, there is still no indication that Spain has taken any concrete measure to put an end to the three fiscal schemes in question or to recover the illegal and incompatible aid already granted. Since 2002, Spain has not replied to the Commission's requests for information on the implementation of the three decisions. The Commission has therefore concluded that Spain has failed to implement these decisions.

This decision is entirely in line with the Commission's announcement in the State Aid Action Plan (SAAP) to monitor more closely the implementation of its state aid decisions by Member States and to ensure recovery of illegal aid (see IP/05/680).

Background

On 20 December 2001 the European Commission adopted three final negative decisions regarding three identical fiscal aid schemes implemented in the three Basque Provinces providing a ten year corporate tax exemption for newly created firms. The Commission's examination showed that the aid granted on the grounds of these schemes, was illegal and incompatible with the EC Treaty, as it constituted operating aid (i.e intended to shield a company from the costs normally arising from its day-to-day management and ordinary activities), and the Basque provinces are not regions eligible for this type of aid. The Commission therefore ordered Spain to abolish the schemes, to recover the aid already granted and to inform the Commission within two months of the notification of the measures taken to comply with it.

Since the beginning of 2005, this is the fourth Commission Decision to refer a Member State to the Court of Justice for failure to recover illegal aid. On 19 January 2005, the Commission decided to refer Italy to the Court for failure to recover the aid granted to public utility companies (see IP/05/76). On 16 February 2005, the Commission decided to bring action before the Court against Germany for failure to recover the illegal aid granted to Kahla (see IP/05/189). Finally, on 6 April 2005, the Commission decided to refer Italy to the ECJ for failure to inform the Commission of the measures it had taken to comply with the Decision on the Italian scheme to assist purchasers of insolvent firms (see IP/05/395).