Brussels, 14/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 14 July, the General Court set aside the Commission decision ordering Germany to recover from Deutsche Post part of the subsidies paid in respect of former civil servant postal workers' pensions.
This decision comes on top of at least four other rulings on subsidies granted to the former traditional postal service operator in Germany. In 1999, the Commission began its first investigation, which has so far led to a plethora of other cases being brought to the European Court of Justice.
This current case involves the Commission's decision of 2012, which ordered Germany to recover €500 million from Deutsche Post out of the €37 billion in subsidies the company had received (EUROPE 10539).
These subsidies were supposed to finance, as from 1995, the pension plans of the employees recovered during the privatisation of the former public monopoly.
Today, the General Court found against the Commission in favour of Germany's appeal. Ultimately, it considers that the Commission did not successfully prove that Deutsche Post had benefited more than its direct competitors. The sole fact that Germany had partially taken charge of the costs of the pensions for the former postal employees is not sufficient to demonstrate this. The Commission was, at most, able to see whether the amounts granted exceeding what was necessary to align the costs of the pensions imposed on Deutsche Post before 1995 with those of its competitors would have been such as to confer an advantage of that kind on it and, accordingly, constitute State aid. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)