Notice for the OJ

 

Action brought on 27 September 2002 by the Confederazione nazionale dei servizi against the Commission of the European Communities

    (Case T-292/02)

    Language of the case: Italian

An action against the European Commission was brought before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on 27 September 2002 by the Confederazione nazionale dei servizi, represented by C. Tessarolo and A. Vianello, lawyers.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

(annul Article 2 of Commission Decision No C.27/99 (ex NN 69/99) by which the Commission declared incompatible with the common market the measures adopted by Italy in the form of a three-year exemption from tax on profits and in the form of loans to joint-stock companies with publicly-owned majority shareholdings within the meaning of Legge (Law) No 142 of 8 June 1990;

(alternatively, annul Article 3 of Decision No C.27/99 by which the Commission required Italy to recover from the recipient undertakings the aid which had been declared unlawful;

(in any case, in the further alternative, annul Article 3 in so far as it fixes interest on the basis of the reference rate used to calculate the equivalent subsidy in connection with aid for regional purposes;

(order the Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

This action seeks annulment of the Commission's decision of 5 June 2002 (State Aid No 27/99), in so far as it declares unlawful and incompatible with the common market the three-year exemption from tax on profits, granted by Italy to local public service undertakings with publicly-owned majority shareholdings within the meaning of Article 3(70) of Legge (Law) No 549/1995, and loans at reduced interest rates within the meaning of Article 9a of Decreto Legge (Decree-Law) No 488/1986, in so far as it requires Italy to recover the said aids from the recipients, including the applicant.

In support of its claims the applicant alleges:

(infringement of Article 87(1) EC and Regulation No 659/1999/EC by virtue of the absence of any effect on trade between the Member States. It argues in that regard that, for the purposes of applying Article 87(1) to an aid measure, the Commission must identify and establish the facts that are capable of showing, firstly, the existence of a system of competition in the relevant market sector and, secondly, the possibility of the aid having a negative effect on trade within the Community. As it is, the markets in which the companies formed under Legge (Law) No 142/90 were operating during the period under consideration had not been liberalised; on the contrary, they were organised as local monopolies which were totally closed to free competition. Furthermore, the particular nature of companies formed under Legge No 142/90 and their substantive corporate continuity as reincarnations of the municipalised and special undertakings had led the Italian legislature and national law to confine the activities of the newly incorporated joint-stock companies within the local sphere of the relevant undertaking;

(infringement of Article 88(1) of the EC Treaty and of Article 1(b)(i) and (v) of Regulation No 659/1999, inasmuch as the defendant has classified the measures as "new aid", thereby infringing the procedural rules with which the Commission must comply in the case of "existing aid";

(infringement of the derogation provided for in Article 86(2) EC, inasmuch as undertakings formed under Legge No 142/90 perform activities of general economic interest.

The applicant also pleads infringement of the obligation to state reasons.

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