De Commissie daagt Italië voor het EU-hof (en)

The European Commission has decided to refer Italy to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) under Article 88.2 of the EC Treaty for failure to comply with a Commission Decision from April 2008 (see IP/08/578 ). The Decision ordered Italy to recover €2.75 million of illegal and incompatible state aid from New Interline S.p.A., an Italian producer of chairs located in the region of Basilicata. To date, Italy has recovered no aid from the beneficiary.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes commented: "The recovery of illegal and incompatible aid is about restoring a fair playing field in the Single Market. The Commission is determined to take all necessary legal steps to ensure that Member States comply with their recovery obligations."

Facts

On 16 April 2008 the Commission found that Italy had granted a state guarantee of €2.75 million in favour of New Interline S.p.A., in breach of Article 88(3) of the EC Treaty (see IP/08/578 ). In fact, Italy had granted the rescue aid without prior approval by the Commission and, after six months, it was neither ended nor followed-up by a plan for a return to viability, as required by the Commission's 2004 Guidelines on rescue and restructuring aid ( see IP/04/856 ). The Commission therefore requested Italy to recover the aid plus interest from New Interline S.p.A.

More than one year after the adoption of the Decision, Italy has not taken any action to recover the aid from New Interline S.p.A. The Commission therefore requested the ECJ to confirm under Article 88.2 of the EC Treaty that Italy has failed to implement the Commission's decision of 16 April 2008.

Background

The Commission's firm approach towards Member States that fail to recover illegal aid is fully in line with the State Aid Action Plan presented in June 2005 (see IP/05/680 ) and with the Notice on the implementation of recovery decisions (see IP/07/1609 ).