Brussels, 25/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 25 June, the European Commission decided to refer Italy to the European Court of Justice for failure to implement a 2004 ruling by the Court of Justice (Case C-99/02) confirming a Commission decision of 1999 finding that Italy had granted illegal and incompatible aid and ordering its recovery. The illegal aid in question took the form of exemptions from social security contributions in cases where companies could not prove that new jobs had been created or prove that the workers hired had special difficulties entering or re-entering the employment market. Although five years have elapsed since this judgement, Italy has still only recovered a small part of the overall aid amount estimated at about €281 million. The Commission has therefore decided to request the European Court of Justice impose fines in the form of a daily penalty payment, to be calculated from the date of the ECJ judgement to be delivered and lasting until Italy manages to complete the recovery, and in the form of a lump sum payment covering the period since the Court's previous judgement in 2004. For calculation of the fines, the Commission will apply its 2005 communication on the application of article 228. The proposal will thus take into consideration the seriousness of the infringement, the very significant period which has already elapsed since the previous Court judgement and the situation of the member state. (O.L./transl.jl)