Luxembourg, 26/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Court of First Instance has annulled the European Commission's 20 July 1999 decision to compel Italy to recover illegal aid that the public company Italia Investimenti (Itainvest) granted to its wholly-owned shipbuilding company Industrie Navali Meccaniche Affini (INMA). The Fifth Chamber of the Court (chaired by Pernilla Lindh) said the Commission had not given sufficient grounds for its decision.
The case that the Italian government made in defence of Itainvest was not "an irrelevant argument but are rather an essential argument intended to show that the compensation by Itainvest for the losses recorded by INMA during 1996 and 1997 is not state aid" explained the Court.
In its decision, the Commission challenged the fact that from May 1997 onwards, INMA was insolvent and that a private investor would not have been able to cover the losses Itainvest made in 1997 and 1998 (104 billion lire).