Brussels, 25/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to refer the Netherlands to the European Court of Justice, following the failure of the country to comply with a Commission decision of 13 December 2000. This decision required the Netherlands to recover unlawful and incompatible aid it had awarded to manure companies (EUROPE 7865). More than six years after the decision, one of the beneficiaries, Fleuren Compost, still has not reimbursed the aid (€487 000 without interest).
The Commission does not have a sympathetic attitude to illegal state aid and is even less tolerant when its decisions are ignored on the issue. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said "The Commission intends to deal very strictly with member states that fail to implement its state aid decisions”.
Although the Netherlands started an administrative procedure to recover the illegal and incompatible aid, plus the interest, the procedure provoked criticism from the Commission. The administrative procedure began in 2000 and led to civil proceedings in June 2006. The Netherlands notified the Commission that it was back to square one on the matter, but the Commission considers that this approach does not comply with its obligation to achieve an immediate and effective execution of the Commission's recovery decision. (cd)