Brussels, 21/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - In a decision published on 20 October in Case C-124/10 P, European Court of Justice Advocate General Mazák recommends that the Court cancel the ruling of the European General Court (T-156/04) of 2009, which itself cancelled a European Commission decision of 2003 on illegal aid from the French state to French utility company Électricité de France (EDF). He said the General Court had wrongly required the Commission to investigate whether the French state had acted as a “private investor” when, as a public body, it granted the aid in the form of a tax exemption.
In its decision of 16 December 2003, the Commission said that EDF had enjoyed a company tax concession worth €888.89 million in 1997, which constituted illegal aid because it boosted the company's competitive position when it should have been paying for grid maintenance under the liberalisation of the electricity market. At the time of the decision, the total amount (including interest) was €1.217 billion, which EDF later repaid to the French state. EDF took the case to the European General Court, which cancelled the decision in December 2009 because the Commission had not examined whether the French state had acted as a “private investor”. The Commission challenged the ruling and the European Court of Justice advocate general has found in favour of the Commission, recomending that the General Court's ruling be cancelled and the case return to the General Court. (FG/transl.fl)