Judgment of the Court of First Instance of 9 September 2009 - Diputación Foral de Álava and Others v Commission

(Joined Cases T-227/01 to T-229/01, T-265/01, T-266/01 and T-270/01) ¹

(State aid - Tax advantages granted by a territorial entity within a Member State - Tax credit of 45% of the amount of investments - Decisions declaring aid schemes incompatible with the common market and requiring recovery of aid paid out - Trade association - Admissibility - Classification as new aid or as existing aid - Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations - Principle of legal certainty - Principle of proportionality)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicants in Case T-227/01: Territorio Histórico de Álava - Diputación Foral de Álava (Spain); and Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco - Gobierno Vasco (Spain) (represented initially by: R. Falcón Tella, and subsequently by M. Morales Isasi and I. Sáenz-Cortabarría Fernández, lawyers)

Applicants in Case T-228/01: Territorio Histórico de Vizcaya - Diputación Foral de Vizcaya (Spain); and Comunidad autónoma del País Vasco - Gobierno Vasco (represented initially by: R. Falcón Tella, and subsequently by M. Morales Isasi and I. Sáenz-Cortabarría Fernández, lawyers)

Applicants in Case T-229/01: Territorio Histórico de Guipúzcoa - Diputación Foral de Guipúzcoa (Spain); and Comunidad autónoma del País Vasco − Gobierno Vasco (represented initially by: R. Falcón Tella, and subsequently by M. Morales Isasi and I. Sáenz-Cortabarría Fernández, lawyers)

Applicant in Cases T-265/01, T-266/01 and T-270/01: Confederación Empresarial Vasca (Confebask) (Bilbao, Spain) (represented initially by: M. Araujo Boyd, L. Ortiz Blanco and V. Sopeña Blanco, lawyers)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities (represented initially by: J. Buendía Sierra, and subsequently by F. Castillo de la Torre and C. Urraca Caviedes, acting as Agents)

Interveners in support of the applicants in Case T-227/01: Cámara Oficial de Comercio e Industria de Álava (Spain) (represented by: I. Sáenz-Cortabarría Fernández and M. Morales Isasi, lawyers); and Confederación Empresarial Vasca (Confebask) (Bilbao) (represented initially by: M. Araujo Boyd and R. Sanz, and subsequently by Araujo Boyd, L. Ortiz Blanco and V. Sopeña Blanco, lawyers)

Interveners in support of the applicants in Case T-228/01: Cámara Oficial de Comercio, Industria y Navegación de Vizcaya (Spain) (represented by: I. Sáenz-Cortabarría Fernández and M. Morales Isasi, lawyers); and Confederación Empresarial Vasca (Confebask) (Bilbao) (represented initially by: M. Araujo Boyd and R. Sanz, and subsequently by Araujo Boyd, L. Ortiz Blanco and V. Sopeña Blanco, lawyers)

Interveners in support of the applicants in Case T-229/01: Cámara Oficial de Comercio, Industria y Navegación de Guipúzcoa (Spain) (represented by: I. Sáenz-Cortabarría Fernández and M. Morales Isasi, lawyers); and Confederación Empresarial Vasca (Confebask) (Bilbao) (represented initially by: M. Araujo Boyd and R. Sanz, and subsequently by Araujo Boyd, L. Ortiz Blanco and V. Sopeña Blanco, lawyers)

Intervener in support of the defendant: Comunidad Autónoma de la Rioja (Spain) (represented initially by: A. Bretón Rodríguez, J. Criado Gámez and I. Serrano Blanco, lawyers)

Re:

Application in Cases T-227/01 and T-265/01 for annulment of Commission Decision 2002/820/EC of 11 July 2001 on the State aid scheme implemented by Spain for firms in Álava in the form of a tax credit amounting to 45% of investments (OJ 2002 L 296, p. 1); application in Cases T-228/01 and T-266/01 for annulment of Commission Decision 2003/27/EC of 11 July 2001 on the State aid scheme implemented by Spain for firms in Vizcaya in the form of a tax credit amounting to 45% of investments (OJ 2003 L 17, p. 1), and application in Cases T-229/01 and T-270/01 for annulment of the Commission decision 2002/894/EC of 11 July 2001 on the State aid scheme implemented by Spain for firms in Guipúzcoa in the form of a tax credit amounting to 45% of investments (OJ 2002 L 314, p. 26).

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Joins Cases T-227/01 to T-229/01, T-265/01, T-266/01 and T-270/01 for the purposes of judgment.

Dismisses the actions.

In Cases T-227/01 to T-229/01:

Orders the Territorio Histórico de Álava - Diputación Foral de Álava, the Territorio Histórico de Vizcaya - Diputación Foral de Vizcaya, the Territorio Histórico de Guipúzcoa - Diputación Foral de Guipúzcoa and the Comunidad autónoma del País Vasco − Gobierno Vasco to each bear their own costs and to pay the costs of the Commission and the Comunidad autónoma de La Rioja;

Orders the Confederación Empresarial Vasca (Confebask), the Cámara Oficial de Comercio e Industria de Álava, the Cámara Oficial de Comercio, Industria y Navegación de Vizcaya and the Cámara Oficial de Comercio, Industria y Navegación de Guipúzcoa to each bear their own costs.

In Cases T-265/01, T-266/01 and T-270/01 orders Confebask to bear its own costs and to pay the costs of the Commission and the Comunidad autónoma de La Rioja.

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¹ - OJ C 331, 24.11.2001.