Luxembourg, 04/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - In a judgement pronounced on 3 May, the Court of First Instance confirmed that the aid granted by the authorities of the Land Saxony (Germany) is indeed legal under EU law (Case T-357/02). The court's decision cancels Commission Decision 2003/226/EC condemning certain sub-programmes for aid to SMEs granted by Saxony.
In December 2001, the Commission announced its decision to initiate the procedure provided for in Article 88 (2) EC with regard to sub-programmes “coaching”, “participation in fairs”, “cooperation” and “design promotion” in Land Saxony. On the other hand, the Commission raised no objection to the sub-programmes “external trade consultancy” and “environmental management”. The Commission did express doubt about the compatibility of the sub-programmes with the common market, under Article 3(1) of the EC Treaty.
It is worth noting that Germany notified the Commission of aid of this kind just before expiry of the Community framework for SMEs in 1996, a framework that was replaced on 2 February 2001 by the SME exemption regulation. It was this second regulation that the Commission used to justify what it considered the incompatibility of the aid programmes. The Court of First Instance ruled that the Commission had acted within its rights when it assessed the programmes according to the normal procedure (i.e. non-expedited) but nonetheless concluded that it should not have assessed them in terms of the regulation exempting SMEs. This regulation in fact does not include measures of application during a transitional period or retroactive clauses. Also, the Court of First Instance rejects the Commission's argument whereby the German notification was not regarded as complete until 2 February 2001 and therefore had to be submitted to the more recent regulation. According to the Court of First Instance, the information received before that date was insufficient to allow a proper assessment which therefore had to be made according to the framework in force, that is, the Community SME rules in force in 1996.
All decisions cancelled are considered as having never existed. It is therefore above all incumbent upon the Commission to carry out a further examination of aid, but still according to the criteria of the former rules. This said, a press release from the Saxony Minister for the Economy and Labour, Thomas Jurk, points out that the programmes to which the decision refers might in any case be obsolete. Under such circumstances, it would not be surprising if the Commission were to consider it is not necessary to launch any further proceedings. (cd)