Brussels, 27/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 27 July, the European Commission decided to refer France to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to recover state aid incompatible with the single market from Ryanair and Transavia.
In July 2014, the European institution ordered France to recover nearly €10 million in aid considered incompatible with the single market: - support of €6.3 million to Ryanair for Nîmes airport; - support of €2.8 million (€2.39 million to Ryanair and €0.43 million to Transavia) for Pau airport; - support of €0.87 million to Ryanair for Angoulême airport.
The Commission finds that these airlines benefited from an undue economic advantage through contractual and commercial arrangements allowing them to pay less than the additional costs linked to their presence in the airports in question.
France has failed to recover all of the aid within the required period of four months. The French authorities have sent out the recovery orders, but have not been able to execute them under national law, as they are under appeal by the beneficiaries. Appeals of this kind, which are permitted under French law, automatically suspended the recovery orders.
However, by virtue of the Scott case-law of the Court (C-232/05), any legal provision which impedes the effective and immediate execution of a recovery order of the Commission should be left unapplied. For this reason, the Commission has ordered France to recover all of the incompatible state aid paid out in this matter. (Mathieu Bion)