Action brought on 8 October 2010 - European Commission v Hellenic Republic

(Case C-485/10)

Language of the case: Greek

Parties

Applicant: European Commission (represented by: B. Stromsky and M. Konstantinidis)

Defendant: Hellenic Republic

Form of order sought

The Court is asked to:

declare that, by failing to take, within the period prescribed, all the measures necessary to implement Commission Decision E(2008) 3118 of 2 July 2008 (as rectified by the Commission Decision of 13 August 2008) on aid granted to Hellenic Shipyards SA or, in any event, by failing to give sufficient information to the Commission on the measures taken in accordance with Article 19 of the decision, the Hellenic Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 11 to 18 of that decision and under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;

order the Hellenic Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The subject of the Commission's action is the non-implementation by the Hellenic Republic of the Commission's decision relating to illegal State aid in favour of Hellenic Shipyards SA which must be recovered from the non-military part of that undertaking.

The Commission points out that the Hellenic Republic should have ensured implementation of the decision within four months of the date of its notification. The decision was published on 13 August 2008 and the Commission did not grant any extension for implementation of the decision. Consequently, the period for compliance formally expired on 13 December 2008.

The Commission states that, in accordance with the settled case-law of the Court, the only justification that may be put forward by a Member State in an action for failure to fulfil obligations brought by the Commission pursuant to Article 108(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is that is absolutely impossible for it properly to implement the decision.

However, in this case the Greek authorities have never raised the argument of absolute impossibility of implementation. On the contrary, from the outset they expressed their intention to implement the decision as rapidly as possible. Nevertheless, the Commission notes that as of the date on which this action was lodged, they have not taken any steps that would constitute even partial implementation of the decision.

The Commission considers that Greece has not taken the necessary action to implement the decision either in accordance with the solution discussed between its services and the competent Greek authorities or in any other appropriate way.

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