The public guarantee granted by the Instituto Valenciano de Finanzas to Elche football club should not be immediately paid back, the General Court of the EU ruled in a summary judgment returned on Tuesday 15 May (case T-901/16).
In July 2016, the European Commission concluded that this aid awarded to Elche football club was in breach of EU state aid rules, as the club obtained two bank loans for a total of €14 million at more advantageous conditions. This public financing was not connected to any restructuring plan aimed to make the club viable. The European institution therefore ordered Spain to recover the aid.
Challenging the Commission's decision, the football club took the matter before the General Court of the EU to have the decision overturned and applied for a summary judgment to have the recovery of the alleged aid suspended.
In its judgment, the General Court favourably welcomes the football club's application for a summary judgment, but is not yet taking position on the application to have the decision overturned.
The General Court considers that at first sight, the arguments relied on by Elche as part of its appeal are serious. The football club, which is currently going through insolvency proceedings, successfully demonstrated the urgent need to suspend the execution of the recovery decision, due to the risk of being liquidated.
Six other Spanish football clubs were targeted by similar Commission decisions to the one against Elche: FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, FC Valencia, the Athletic Club, Atlético Osasuna and Hercules (see EUROPE 11586). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)