Brussels, 02/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - With the Court of Justice of the EU resuming after the summer break, two cases involving France are likely to attract all the attention. On Thursday 4 September, the Court will deliver two judgments, one on the aid granted by France to the shipping company SNCM (Société Nationale Corse-Méditerranée) and the other on transposition by France of the nitrates directive.
SNCM. The month of July saw crew strikes, blockades of Corsica and negotiations between unions and the French government, the latest twists in an almost ten-year long crisis involving this French company which plies a regular service between mainland France, Corsica, Sardinia, Algeria and Tunisia. Plagued by chronic deficit and with its market share plummeting against its main rival, Italian company Corsica Ferries France, the SNCM was granted aid by France in 2002, then again on its privatisation in 2006. In September 2012, the General Court of the EU ruled that these aid payments were illegal state aid and should be repaid. In this decision, the General Court went against the opinion of the European Commission, itself accused of errors in law and of appreciation.
What is at stake for the French government is both financial (over €200 million) and political, the SNCM case having, over time, become symbolic of the country's socio-economic problems and perceived by some of a single European market that is failing - or, worse, is harming French companies. Today, the SNCM and France are calling for the General Court ruling to be annulled (joined cases C-533/12 and C-536/12). In his opinion in January 2014 (see EUROPE 10866), the Advocate General advised that the judges should dismiss this appeal and that the SNCM and the French government should share equally their own costs and those of Corsica Ferries.
Nitrates. Just as with the SNCM case, the transposition by France of the nitrate directive raises strong reactions from a section of the French population and criticism at European level. Again in July, some one hundred farmers demonstrated in the south of France against the latest proposals of the French government, which is seeking to address the complaints of the Commission (see EUROPE 10866) by extending the number of municipalities classed as “nitrate-vulnerable zones” (the tolerable nitrate level having been considerably reduced).
Today, after having been accused of unjustified tardiness in setting up these zones, France will have to defend itself against accusations of its legislation failing to comply with the directive on nitrates and could see itself hit with a fine of several tens of millions of euros (case C-237/12). In January, the Advocate General by and large took the same line as the Commission, flagging up a number of weaknesses in French law (see EUROPE 10998). (JK)