In a press release dated Friday 31 August, the Luxembourg government has stated that it intends to bring an appeal to the General Court of the European Union against the decision of the European Commission of 20 June of this year ordering the Grand Duchy to recover the sum of €120 million from the Engie group, having found that this constituted State aid incompatible with EU rules (see EUROPE 12045).
Readers may recall that in the decision in question, the Commission took the view that as a result of legal and tax arrangements, Luxembourg issued tax rulings to two intra-group financing structures, Engie LNG Supply (from 2008) and Engie Treasury Management (from 2010), that gave them tax treatment that does not correspond to economic reality. At the time, the institution estimated that the group was able to avoid tax on 99% of the profits made by the two entities in question and that this arrangement “gave Engie a significant competitive advantage in Luxembourg”.
With the government of the Grand Duchy having already expressed its disagreement with the institution's reasoning, today's press release stresses that “Engie was taxed in accordance with the tax rules in force at the time, without benefiting of any selective treatment”.
However, the Luxembourg authorities had that they “will recover the alleged aid, pending the outcome of the legal proceedings”. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)