Commissie klaagt Italië aan bij Europees Hof vanwege niet terugvorderen onrechtmatige staatssteun (en)

The European Commission has decided to refer Italy to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for not complying with a Commission decision of 19 November 2009 (see IP/09/1750) that found that Alcoa Trasformazioni had received unlawful state aid and needed to repay it to the Italian authorities. To date, Italy has not recovered the aid from Alcoa.

"To remedy the distortion of competition caused by an unlawful state subsidy, it is extremely important that the aid is recovered from the beneficiaries without delay", said Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia.

On 19 November 2009, the Commission found that Italy needed to partially recover a subsidy granted to Alcoa in the form of a preferential electricity tariff for its two Italian aluminium smelters (Sardinia and Veneto), because the tariff provided an unfair advantage to Alcoa over its competitors. The amount to be recovered is approximately €295 million.

Italy was under an obligation to immediately and effectively implement the Commission decision. In particular, Italy was required to recover the full amount of aid granted to the smelter in Veneto since 2006, whereas recovery from the Sardinian smelter was limited to aid received from January 2006 until January 2007.

Although Alcoa lodged an appeal against the Commission's 2009 decision and asked for interim measures (Case T-177/10), this does not dispense Italy from its obligation to recover the aid. In July 2010, the General Court dismissed Alcoa's action for interim measures (but Alcoa has appealed).

Background

Member States have to recover state aid that has been found by the Commission to be incompatible with EU rules, within the deadline set out in the Commission decision. This is very important because delays in the recovery of unlawful subsidies maintain the distortion of competition created by the aid. That is why Article 14 of Regulation n° 659/99 and the Notice on the implementation of decisions ordering the recovery of unlawful or incompatible aid (see IP/07/1609) provide that Member States should recover the aid from the beneficiary(ies) without delay.

If a Member State does not implement a recovery decision, the Commission may refer the matter to the Court of Justice under Article 108(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) that allows the Commission to directly refer Member States to the Court for violations of EU state aid rules.

If a Member State does not comply with a first ECJ judgment, the Commission may ask the Court to impose penalty payments under Article 260 of the TFEU.