Brussels, 26/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - On 25 February, the European Commission issued a set of guidelines to assist member states' courts in applying EU state aid rules. These guidelines update the Commission's 1995 communication.
The guidelines are to help national courts and potential claimants on points of law and procedure in cases of suspected state aid, in particular concerning the recovery of illegal aid from the beneficiary, interim relief or possible damages actions. They also provide for a consultation mechanism that will allow national courts to ask the Commission for its opinion on the application of state aid rules. This initiative is part of the Commission's efforts to encourage private challenges to illegal state aid in member states' courts. The aim here is twofold: firstly, to increase detection of infringements by allowing injured parties directly to exercise their rights and, secondly, to reduce the administrative burden of disputes at Community level.
National courts can decide that state support is “illegal” if it has all the characteristics of state aid and has been implemented without the prior approval of the Commission. However, if the Commission is notified of aid, then it is to the Commission that it falls to determine whether the aid is “compatible” with Community law or not. This decision can thereafter be challenged in the Court of Justice. A lawyer specialising in this area says that the Commission guidelines do not remove every obstacle to private law suits. “Often, companies are quite simply not aware of aid received by their competitors,” she pointed out, adding that, even when the infringement is clear, there is little incentive to take the matter to court. “The cost of the procedure may be high, and it is difficult to demonstrate damage in concrete terms,” she said. The guidelines can be found at http: //ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/legislation/rules.html#courts (C.D./transl.rt)