Brussels, 25/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - An oral address was made at the Court of First Instance on Tuesday 25 November, in the case pitting Electricité de France (EDF) against the European Commission (T-156/04). In 2003, the latter decided that the tax dispensation the company benefitted from for the 1997 tax year constituted inappropriate aid. The Commission therefore demanded that EDF paid the state the taxes it had been exonerated from paying, plus interest accumulated in the meantime. The company paid the amount demanded in 2004 but asked the Court to cancel the Commission's decisions (C68/2002, N504/2003 and C25/2003). In the event of cancellation, EDF would recover €889 million plus the interest it has paid the French state.
The company contests certain provisions in the Commission's decision, particularly the one on market analysis and classification of tax exemptions. EDF argues that this measure, taken by the French state, was not illegal but an essential and legitimate factor in opening up the French electricity market in 1997. The company also stresses that the tax measures in question did not affect electricity exchanges between member states. In the report on the hearing, the Commission said that it was not just referring to the electricity production and distribution market but also to several other related markets on which EDF had its subsidiaries. The Commission added that in the year in question, EDF exported electricity to other member states whose markets where already open and therefore benefited from a double advantage: protection of its monopoly in France and opening up other markets to competition. The decision will follow in a few months' time. (C.D./transl.rh)