Action brought on 29 July 2009 - CNIEL v Commission
(Case T-293/09)
Language of the case: French
Parties
Applicant: Centre National Interprofessionnel de l'Économie Laitière (CNIEL) (Paris, France) (represented by: A. Cabanes and V. Kostrzewski-Pugnat, lawyers)
Defendant: Commission of the European Communities
Form of order sought
annul the decision adopted by the Commission on 10 December 2008 in Case N 561/2008 - France (Actions by interprofessional organisations);
in the alternative, order the Commission to institute the formal procedure to review the aid laid down in Article 88(2) EC;
order the Commission to pay the costs.
Pleas in law and main arguments
By the present action, the applicant seeks annulment of Commission Decision C(2008) 7846 final
1 of 10 December 2008, by which the Commission held that the framework system of actions able to be undertaken by the French agricultural interprofessional organisations, consisting of aid for technical assistance, for production and marketing of high-quality agricultural products, for research and development and for advertising in favour of primary producers and undertakings active in the processing and marketing of agricultural products, financed by voluntary levies made compulsory by interministerial order ('CVLs') taken from the members of those interprofessional organisations constitutes State aid compatible with the common market.
In support of its action, the applicant advances three pleas in law, alleging:
manifest error of assessment in breach of Article 87(1) EC, since CVLs do not constitute State resources and since the measures adopted cannot be attributed to the State and do not give rise to any advantage for the final beneficiaries;
breach of the duty to state reasons, since the Commission has not indicated its reasons for finding that the CVLs constitute State resources or how trade between Member States is affected or competition distorted;
breach of Article 88(3) EC in that the Commission failed to institute the formal review procedure laid down in Article 88(2) EC despite the existence of serious difficulties in assessing the nature of the framework system at issue.
____________1 - OJ 2009 C 116, p. 14.