Luxembourg, 23/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - In its ruling of 18 July on case C-119/05, the European Court of Justice declared that State aid granted to the Italian company Lucchini must be recovered, in line with the decision of the Commission of 1990, even though this aid was approved by rulings returned by Italian civil law in 1991 and 1994. Lucchini had invoked the “res judicata” principle in the hope of keeping in place the validity of the original decision by the Ministry of Industry to grant the aid. This principle confers authority on legal decisions which have not been affected by a subsequent decision by a higher Court. By means of this authority, the granting of the aid cannot be withdrawn by the Ministry of Industry, as it has been confirmed by Italian civil justice. However, the European Court of Justice confirmed that the Ministry of Industry is fully competent to recover the aid paid out, as it is bound to do so by the decision of the European Commission, and by Community law. As a result, Italian jurisdiction must leave unimplemented the provisions of article 2909 of the Italian civil code (principle of res judicata) insofar as it would prevent the recovery of the State aid which the Commission has ruled to be incompatible with the single market. (cd)