Judgment of the General Court of 28 February 2024 – Scandlines Danmark and Scandlines Deutschland v Commission
(Case T-7/19) 1
(State aid – Public financing of the Fehmarn Belt fixed rail-road link project – Aid granted by Denmark to Femern and Femern Landanlæg – Decision finding that certain measures do not constitute unlawful aid – Decision not to raise any objections – Partial withdrawal of the contested act – No need to adjudicate in part – Scope of Article 107(1) TFEU – Failure to initiate the formal investigation procedure – Obligation to state reasons)
Language of the case: English
Parties
Applicants: Scandlines Danmark ApS (Copenhagen, Denmark), Scandlines Deutschland GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) (represented by: L. Sandberg-Mørch, lawyer)
Defendant: European Commission (represented by: V. Bottka, C. Georgieva and S. Noë, acting as Agents)
Interveners in support of the applicants: Aktionsbündnis gegen eine feste Fehmarnbeltquerung eV (Fehmarn, Germany) (represented by: L. Sandberg-Mørch and W. Mecklenburg, lawyers), Naturschutzbund Deutschland eV (NABU) (Stuttgart, Germany) (represented by: L. Sandberg-Mørch and T. Hohmuth, lawyers), Trelleborg Hamn AB (Trelleborg, Sweden) (represented by: L. Sandberg-Mørch, lawyer), Föreningen Svensk Sjöfart (FSS) (Gothenburg, Sweden) (represented by: L. Sandberg-Mørch, lawyer)
Intervener in support of the defendant: Kingdom of Denmark (represented by: M. Søndahl Wolff, acting as Agent, and by R. Holdgaard, lawyer)
Re:
By their action based on Article 263 TFEU, the applicants seek the annulment of Commission Decision C(2018) 6268 final of 28 September 2018 on State aid SA.51981 (2018/FC), by which the Commission found that the measures adopted by the Kingdom of Denmark in respect of Femern A/S and Femern Landanlæg A/S did not constitute unlawful State aid and that there was no need to raise any objections concerning the capital injection in favour of Femern, since that injection was, in any event, compatible with the internal market under Article 107(3)(b) TFEU.
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Declares that there is no longer any need to adjudicate on the head of claim seeking annulment of Commission Decision C(2018) 6268 final of 28 September 2018 on State aid SA.51981 (2018/FC), in so far as it concerns the measures granted to Femern A/S;
Dismisses the action as to the remainder;
Orders Scandlines Danmark ApS and Scandlines Deutschland GmbH to bear their own costs and to pay the costs incurred by the European Commission;
Orders the Kingdom of Denmark to bear its own costs;
Orders Aktionsbündnis gegen eine feste Fehmarnbeltquerung eV, Naturschutzbund Deutschland eV (NABU), Trelleborg Hamn AB and Föreningen Svensk Sjöfart (FSS) to bear their own costs.
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1 OJ C 72, 25.2.2019.