In a judgment handed down on Wednesday 6 November (case T-827/22), the General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by the Hungarian airline Wizz Air against Romanian State aid to the national airline TAROM in the form of a capital injection of almost €2 million, for damage suffered between July and December 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and approved in April 2022 by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12943/18).
The General Court noted that the aid at issue was intended to compensate for damage suffered as a result of travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic. In its view, the Commission had correctly assessed the proportionality of the aid and the measure in question had not been overcompensated, since the EU institution had accurately calculated the losses suffered by TAROM. The Romanian company has also taken reasonable steps to limit the damage suffered.
The European judge also rejects Wizz Air’s arguments that the Commission failed to take into account the rescue aid of €36.7 million granted to TAROM in February 2020 (see EUROPE 13326/14). In its view, the previous aid and the disputed measure do not cover the same costs.
See the General Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/e7p (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)