The General Court of the EU has annulled the European Commission’s decision of July 2021 (see EUROPE 12770/13) authorising German aid for the restructuring of Condor airline, ruling that the EU institution should have initiated a formal investigation procedure, in a judgment handed down on Wednesday 8 May (Case T-28/22).
Ryanair is challenging before the General Court the restructuring aid granted by Germany to Condor in order to remedy the difficulties the latter was facing as a result of the bankruptcy of its former parent company, Thomas Cook.
According to the General Court, Ryanair has sufficiently demonstrated that the Commission should have had doubts concerning the aid at issue and should have initiated a formal investigation procedure. In particular, the EU institution failed to verify that the terms of the German aid ensured that Germany received a reasonable share of Condor’s future gains in value, in line with the ‘adequate burden sharing’ requirement enshrined in the Commission’s 2014 guidelines on state aid for rescuing companies other than financial institutions.
In the context of the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook, the General Court had already rejected in May 2022 an appeal by the Irish low-cost airline against an initial rescue aid granted to Condor in 209 (Case T-577/20 - 12955/27).
To see the Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/c57 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)