Brussels, 13/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - France has still not fully recovered aid granted illegally, between 1992 and 2002, to French fruit and vegetable producers through their organisations. The Court of Justice of the EU, following an action for failure to comply with obligations brought by the European Commission, ruled (case C-37/14) on Thursday 12 February that France had not taken all the necessary measures to do so.
In 2009, the Commission ordered France to recover the aid granted to producers to mitigate the effects of supply temporarily exceeding demand. France lodged an appeal against this decision with the General Court in 2012 but the ruling went against it. France made no further appeal. Noting that the recovery procedure was much too slow - France had four months to recover the aid - the Commission decided to lodge an action for failure to fulfil an obligation with the Court of Justice.
In its ruling, the Court found no reason why all the illegal state aid, granted in the context of “contingency plans”, had not yet been recovered from recipients. France had not demonstrated that it was unable to do so. That some producer organisations no longer existed did not, in the view of the judges, prevent identification of remaining members. The fact that enterprises which received illegal aid were in difficulty or were bankrupt, or that they had been taken over or been the subject of a merger/take-over changed nothing of the responsibility of the French authorities to recover the aid. If France does not comply with this ruling, the Commission may return once more to the Court and seek financial penalties.
France wants to avoid all financial sanctions
France is continuing its efforts to remove any threat of sanctions and financial penalties to the state, says the French Agriculture Ministry in a press release. “This ruling will not exempt any enterprise identified as having received aid under 'contingency plans' from repayment of this aid”, says France. The French authorities want to make sure the procedure is carried out on a case-by-case basis in order to take account of individual circumstances and to use all the means available under Community law to facilitate repayment. So far, working closely with the sector, “almost two thirds of the illegally paid monies have been recovered”, says the French government. The total sum to be paid back amounts to €338 million, estimate the French authorities. (Jan Kordys, with Lionel Changeur)