The General Court of the European Union has dismissed in its entirety the action for annulment brought by the airline Ryanair against the European Commission’s decision of June 2020 approving the recapitalisation of Finnair by the Finnish State, in a judgment delivered on Wednesday 22 June (Case T-657/20).
According to the European Court, contrary to the arguments of the Irish low cost company, the Commission was not obliged to open a formal procedure to examine the compatibility of the State aid in question with the internal market. In assessing the legality of the measure in question, the Commission rightly disregarded certain requirements set out in its Communication on the temporary framework for State aid to support the economy in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12450/7, 12461/9).
The European Court notes that the temporary framework on State aid during the Covid-19 period has been amended several times, in particular after the contested decision, in order to take better account of the emergency decisions which the Member States took to deal with the pandemic. This concerns in particular the type of measures such as those at issue in the contested decision.
For example, the application of the acquisition ban, as provided for in the temporary framework, would have forced Finland to reduce its share in Finnair to a level lower than that held before the pandemic. The General Court considers that the Commission was entitled to waive this right.
In a previous case, the General Court validated the granting of a state guarantee to Finnair covering 90% of a €600 million loan obtained from a pension fund (see EUROPE 12698/27).
See the judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/28n (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)