Notice for the OJ

 

Action brought on 16 January 2002 by Arca Delio eredi and Others against Commission of the European Communities

    (Case T-4/02)

    (Language of the case: Italian)

An action against the Commission of the European Communities was brought before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on 16 January 2002 by the abovementioned applicants, represented by Costantino Murgia and Andrea Delitala, lawyers.

The applicants claim that the Court should:

(uphold the present application;

(annul the contested decision; and

(make an appropriate order as to costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicants in the present case are challenging the decision of the Commission relating to aid in the form of consolidation loans, granted by the Sardinia Region to certain farmers and agricultural undertakings established there. In the contested decision, the defendant finds that Italy has failed to fulfil its obligation to give prior notification of the aid measures at the draft stage, implemented those same measures before the Commission has given its opinion and granted aid incompatible with the common market within the meaning of Article 92 (now Article 87) of the Treaty and which does not, moreover, meet the exemption conditions provided for by Article 87(2) and (3).

The aid which constitutes the subject matter of the present case was granted in response to the crisis being faced by Sardinian agricultural undertakings which had made investments involving financial commitments which they were not able to honour for various reasons, such as prolonged periods of drought, crises in the markets, lack of organisation in the marketing stage of the products and high interest rates.

In support of their arguments, the applicants allege infringement and misapplication of Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty, the "specific Commission practice for aid to farms in difficulty", the "Community guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring firms in difficulty", Commission decision on "de minimis" aid No 96/C/68/06, Council Regulation (EC) No 994/98 of 7 May 1998 on the application of Articles 92 and 93 of the Treaty establishing the European Community to certain categories of horizontal State aid, ¹ and Commission Regulation (EC) No 69/2001 of 12 January 2001 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to de minimis aid; ² the applicants also allege misuse of powers.

The applicants point out, in particular, the extremely serious situation of the recipient undertakings, the situation in which Sardinia finds itself from the point of view of its economic development, the little likelihood that the aid scheme in issue will have an impact on trade or compromise or distort the rules on competition, and the fact that the assistance granted amounts to less than EUR 100 000 for each recipient, a threshold deemed admissible and which is not harmful to competition under the de minimis applicable in State aid matters. Furthermore, so far as concerns the practice for aid to farms in difficulty, the applicants state that the aid was intended to cover earlier contractual obligations relating to investments, does not exceed the levels or the rates laid down by the Commission for the agricultural products processing and marketing sector, bearing in mind that Sardinia is an Objective 1 area, and that the aid in issue was also intended to offset fluctuations in currency values and was granted to the applicants as owners of farms which are sufficiently likely to regain economic viability.

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¹ - (OJ 1998 L 142, p. 1

² - (OJ 2001 L 10, p. 30