Brussels, 03/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - With a ruling handed down on Thursday 29 September (case T-442/07), the General Court of the EU partially upheld the proceedings for failure to act brought by low-cost airline Ryanair against the Commission, which failed to take action on complaints against the Italian state over a number of aid measures in support of Alitalia.
Ryanair informed the Commission of: - the payment of €35 million in aid to Alitalia for damages resulting from the events of 9/11; - reductions in airport taxes in “hub” airports (two complaints in November and December 2005 on these two measures); - the transfer of 100 Alitalia employees to the companies Air One and Meridiana (a further complaint in 2006); - public funding of redundancy compensation paid by Alitalia and company debts towards Italian airports; - reductions in fuel costs; - restrictions placed on Ryanair operations.
The Commission did not follow up on these complaints, despite a formal notice from Ryanair in August 2007, reception of which it acknowledged. In November 2007, at the end of the two months during which the Commission should have reacted, Ryanair referred the matter to the General Court. The Court had to determine principally whether, when the formal notice was delivered, the Commission was under any obligation to act on the various measures that were being challenged.
In its ruling the Court says that the Commission failed in its obligations by failing to adopt a decision after the formal notice from Ryanair. It should have informed Ryanair within two months that there were not sufficient grounds to be able to come to a decision or to adopt a decision on the three measures on which Ryanair had lodged complaints. However, with regard to the other measures, the Court ruled that the Commission had demonstrated correctly that it was under no obligation to take action since no complaint had been received over these measures. (FG/transl.rt)