Brussels, 16/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - Following the Court's annulment of Decision 2003/293/EC, the Commission adopted a new decision you on Tuesday15 December on the agricultural support measures implemented by Spain following the increase in fuel prices. The Commission has declared those measures to be incompatible with treaty provisions on the internal market.
The decision relates to the measures introduced by Spanish Decree-law No 10/2000, which provides inter alia for: abolition of the maximum limit of 50% of turnover imposed on cooperatives for transactions with non-member third parties without loss of preferential tax treatment when supplying gasoil B to non-member third parties; abolition of the requirement to constitute a new and distinct legal entity when a cooperative subject to the general tax system distributes gasoil B to non-members. The Commission acknowledges that agricultural cooperatives fulfil the objectives referred to in Article 39 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and that they therefore facilitate the development of agricultural activity. Moreover, as agriculture is a sector closely linked to the economy as a whole, it must also be concluded that agricultural cooperatives facilitate the development of the economic regions where they are located. The Commission also points out that this decision concerns only the measures described above. However, the measures in question provide agricultural cooperative societies with a selective advantage when selling gasoil B by enabling them to sell unlimited quantities to non-members without constituting a separate legal entity while continuing to benefit from their tax treatment, unlike a company with share capital engaged in the same activity and finding itself in the same factual and legal situation
The aid recovered will therefore relate to the tax advantages received for the part of the cooperatives' extra-cooperative activities selling gasoil B in excess of the 50% limit without constituting a separate entity. This will have to be implemented immediately, except for aid granted to specific projects which - when the aid was granted - fulfilled all the conditions stipulated, in particular the de minimis rules. (O.L.)