In a ruling handed down on Thursday 23 January (Case C-490/23 P), the Court of Justice of the European Union has overturned a judgment handed down by the General Court of the European Union in May 2023 (Case T-268/21 - see EUROPE 13187/28), which had itself annulled a European Commission decision of December 2020 approving Italian State aid relating to compensation, via a dedicated fund of €130 million, for Italian airlines affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Court of Justice refers the judgment back to the General Court so that it may rule on a number of pleas put forward by the low-cost airline Ryanair in its action which led to the General Court judgment of May 2023. These include a breach of the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality, a manifest error of assessment of the proportionality of the approved aid in relation to the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and a breach of procedural rights on the grounds that the Commission refused to initiate the formal procedure for examining the aid despite the existence of serious doubts as to the compatibility of the measure in question with the internal market.
To see the judgment of the Court of Justice, go to https://aeur.eu/f/f6p (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)