Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 20 January 2022 – European Commission v Hellenic Republic

(Case C-51/20) ¹

(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations – State aid – Aid declared unlawful and incompatible with the internal market – Obligation of recovery – Judgment of the Court establishing the failure of a Member State to fulfil its obligations – Non-compliance – Failure to comply with the obligation to recover unlawful and incompatible aid – Financial penalties – Proportionality and dissuasiveness – Periodic penalty payment – Lump sum – Ability to pay – Weighting of the Member State’s voting rights in the European Parliament)

Language of the case: Greek

Parties

Applicant: European Commission (represented by: A. Bouchagiar and B. Stromsky, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Hellenic Republic (represented by: K. Boskovits and A. Samoni-Rantou, acting as Agents)

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Declares that, by failing to adopt all the measures necessary to comply with the judgment of 9 November 2017, Commission v Greece (C-481/16, not published, EU:C:2017:845), the Hellenic Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 260(1) TFEU;

Orders the Hellenic Republic to pay the European Commission a periodic penalty payment in the amount of EUR 4 368 000 per six-month period from the date of delivery of the present judgment up to the date of full compliance with the judgment of 9 November 2017, Commission v Greece (C-481/16, not published, EU:C:2017:845);

Orders the Hellenic Republic to pay to the European Commission a lump sum of EUR 5 500 000;

Orders the Hellenic Republic to pay the costs.

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¹ OJ C 87, 16.3.2020.