Luxembourg, 13/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - Germany has lodged an appeal against the decision of the European Commission of 8 July 1999 demanding that the German State-owned bank WestLB refund the 808 million euro it is said to have received in State aid. Its arguments are the same as those put forward by North-Rheinland Westphalia and WestLB in their case before the European Court of First Instance (CFI - see yesterday's EUROPE, page 8).
The case by the German State having been lodged with the Court of Justice: a Member State may only take a case against the Commission or Council before the European Court of Justice, whereas individuals, companies and Laender must lodge their cases before the CFI (after that, they may make a further appeal before the Court of Justice for an annulment of a CFI ruling).
Observers point out that the Community jurisdictions here find themselves in a classic situation that is essentially found in cases of State aid: two (or three) parties, including a government, dispute the same Commission decision, and use the same arguments, but before two different jurisdictions.
The Court and the CFI are deliberating to see which solution to adopt among the following three: i) the Court and the CFI move forward together, each dealing with their own cases (which most regard as difficult to imagine and unproductive); ii) the CFI drops the case in favour of the Court of Justice (which would not fail to displease the Land and the bank as they would consider the CFI to be the more adapted to dealing with complex facts than the Court of Justice); iii) the Court cannot drop the case in favour of the CFI, but may, however, suspend its decision while waiting for the ruling of the CFI.
The Court and the CFI say they are aware of the difficulties of the situation, which crops up quite frequently in cases of "State aid". They have asked the Council to amend the rules of procedure so that, in similar cases, a Member State may also turn to the Court of First Instance.