Action brought on 3 August 2009 - CIVR and Others v Commission
(Case T-303/09)
Language of the case: French
Parties
Applicants: Conseil interprofessionnel des vins du Roussillon - CIVR (Perpignan, France), Comité national des interprofessions des vins à appellation d'origine et à indication géographique - CNIV (Paris, France), Interprofession nationale porcine - Inaporc (Paris) and Others (Perpignan, France) (represented by: H. Calvet, O. Billard and Y. Trifounovitch, lawyers)
Defendant: Commission of the European Communities
Form of order sought
annul the decision of the European Commission of 10 December 2008 State aid N 561/2008 - France - Actions led by inter-branch organisations, C(2008) 7846 final,
1 inasmuch as it found the actions led by the agricultural inter-branch organisations in technical assistance, production and marketing aid for quality products, research and development and marketing to be State aid and inasmuch as it found compulsory voluntary levies used to finance those actions to be State resources;
order the Commission to pay the costs.
Pleas in law and main arguments
By the present action, the applicants seek partial annulment of Commission Decision C(2008) 7846 final of 10 December 2008, by which the Commission had found that the framework scheme of actions liable to be carried out by the French agricultural inter-branch organisations, consisting in aid for technical assistance, for production and marketing for quality products, for research and development and marketing for primary producers and undertakings engaged in processing and marketing agricultural products, financed through voluntary levies made compulsory by inter-ministerial decree, to be collected from the members of those inter-branch organisations, were a measure constituting State aid compatible with the common market.
The pleas in law and principal arguments relied on by the applicant are essentially identical or similar to those put forward in Case T-293/09 CNIEL v Commission.
____________1 - OJ 2009, C 116, p. 14.