Brussels, 05/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - Belgium has officially appealed to the Court of Justice of the EU against the European Commission's decision ordering it to recover €942 million from businesses which used the excess profit ruling system.
After two months of negotiations with the Commission, which on 11 January ordered the repayment of around €700 million in illegal State aid granted by Belgium to 35 multinational companies (EUROPE 11465), Brussels appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union at the end of March, the news agency Bloomberg reported on Monday 4 April. The total amount to be recovered from the companies finally stands at around €942 million.
However, Belgium is not leaving it there. It will also table a request to suspend this recovery until such time as the Court announces its judgement. In the meantime, discussions with the Belgian tax recovery services and the Commission continue.
On 11 January 2016, the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, concluded that the Belgian system, which provides for a tax exoneration on a proportion of the profits of companies which are part of a multinational group, was a serious obstacle to competition. Johan Van Overtveld, the Belgian Finance Minister, warned the Commission of the consequences of this recovery operation. At that time, the Belgian minister said that he would act to “keep the impact down to the minimum possible, in the interests of legal certainty and of our economic fabric” (EUROPE 11465).
According to the Federation of Belgian businesses, the Commission's January decision is “desperately harmful, not only to the companies in question, but also to legal certainty and Belgium's image”. On the other hand, the Federation welcomes Belgium's decision to appeal. It finds that this decision is “vital in order to be able to continue to clarify the many legal, technical and procedural aspects of the dossier”. (Original version in French by Maëlle Didion, intern)