Brussels, 23/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - In a ruling issued on Wednesday 22 October 2008, the European Court of Justice's Court of First Instance ruled that the European Commission's decision to outlaw state aid in Denmark to public broadcast television company TV2/Danmark is flawed. The decision ordering the refund of 628.2 million Danish kroner (€84 million) has been annulled by the Court of First Instance (joined case T-309/04 and others).
In Decision 2006/217/EC, the Commission argued that only some of the aid granted by Denmark from 1995 to 2002 to TV2 (in the form of licence fees and other aid) is compatible with common market rules. The remainder, 628.2 million kroner, was incompatible with EU state aid rules, according to the Commission's decision, which required it to be reimbursed. TV2 and Denmark took the case to the European Court of First Instance, which noted several errors by the Commission, notably its assessment of TV2's reserves. The Commission considered all TV2's reserves as de facto state resources but the Court of First Instance rules that the Commission should have distinguished between licence fees and advertising revenue. Also, the Commission failed to provide sufficient evidence to back up its allegation that TV2's reserves had not been properly controlled by the state. (C.D./trans.fl)