The European Commission had approved, with reason, the United Kingdom's aid measures for the construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said on Thursday 7 May (Case C-594/18 P).
Noting that the Euratom Treaty does not contain any provisions on State aid, the Advocate General considers it appropriate that the rules of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) on competition and State aid should apply to the nuclear energy sector.
However, according to the lawyer, Article 107 TFEU does not require the aid to pursue an "objective of common interest" nor an "objective of public interest" in order to be compatible with the Treaty. It only has to ‘facilitate the development of certain economic activities’ and it must not ‘adversely affect trading conditions to an extent contrary to the common interest’.
Furthermore, he considers that the development of nuclear energy is a clearly defined objective of Union law under the Euratom Treaty and that this objective cannot be subordinated to other objectives of that law, such as the protection of the environment.
In his Opinion, the Advocate General therefore considers that the General Court of the European Union had rightly dismissed Austria's action against the Commission's decision to approve the British State aid. He therefore proposes that the CJEU should dismiss Austria's appeal against the judgment of the General Court.
See the Opinion of the Advocate General: https://bit.ly/3coAGhn (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)