Brussels, 12/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 10 December, the European Commission welcomed the ruling by the European Court of Justice that same day in Case C-272/12 P, setting aside a General Court ruling that had annulled a Commission Decision of December 2005 (2006/323/EC) finding exemptions from excise duty on mineral oils used as fuel for alumina production granted between February 2002 and the end of December 2003 by France, Ireland and Italy to be in breach of EU state aid rules. In 2012, the European General Court annulled the decision for a second time on the grounds that the exemptions did not constitute state aid under the meaning of the EU rules and had been authorised by the Council of Ministers until the end of 2006. It said the Commission did not have the power to challenge exemptions authorised by the Council in a unanimous vote under EU Directive 92/81/EEC on excise duty. The Court overruled this ruling, stating “a plea based on an infringement of Article 87(1) EC (now Article 107(1) of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union - TFEU), namely the non-imputability of the measure in question to the State, cannot be raised by a court of its own motion”. The Court of Justice added that: “a Council decision authorising a Member State, in accordance with an EU Directive on taxation to introduce an exemption from excise duties, could not have the effect of preventing the Commission from exercising its duty conferred by the TFEU of controlling the compatibility of such exemptions with EU state aid rules”. (FG/transl.fl)