On Thursday 7 December, Advocate General Melchior Wathelet proposed referring the case (C-438/16 P) concerning the undue economic advantage it is suspected that the French institute IFP Énergies nouvelles derives from the unlimited public guarantee it enjoys from the French State on its activities of an economic nature to the General Court of the European Union (EGC).
Up until 2006, IFP Énergies nouvelles, which carries out research, training and information missions, was a body under private law before becoming an industrial and commercial public establishment (EPIC). The Commission considers that this public status confers upon it an implicit unlimited guarantee of the French state. It appealed against an earlier ruling of the EGC of 2016 cancelling its decision on the matter before the Court of Justice (T-479/11 and T-157/12).
Partly accepting the Commission’s appeal, Advocate General Wathelet takes the view that the EGC ruling should be overturned as it should have been found that the existence of an unlimited and free state guarantee brings about a presumption of an advantage for both the beneficiary of the guarantee and the economic operators with which it enters into contracts. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)