Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2000:172
Date: 2000-03-30
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (1951)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
1. ECSC — Aid to the steel industry — Authorisation by the Commission — Regional 
investment aid — Conditions — Notification of planned aid in good time — Failure to 
comply with the time-limit — Effects 
(General Decision No 3855/91, Art. 6(1)) 
2. Appeals — Pleas in law — Grounds of a judgment vitiated by an infringement of 
Community law — Operative part well founded on other legal grounds — Dismissal 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-210/98 P 
1. The period for notification of aid plans 
laid down in Article 6(1) of the Fifth 
Steel Aid Code operates as a time-bar 
such as to preclude the approval of any 
aid plan notified subsequent to it. It 
follows that the Commission was not 
entitled to authorise aid unless the 
plans to grant or alter it had been 
notified before the time-limit specifi­
cally laid down. 
Furthermore, since it is a question 
which touches on the competence of 
the Commission, the question of com­
pliance with that time-limit must be 
raised by the Court of its own motion 
even though none of the parties has 
asked it to do so. 
(see paras 49, 55-56) 
2. Where the grounds of a judgment of 
the Court of First Instance disclose an 
infringement of Community law but 
the operative part of the judgment is 
shown to be well founded for other 
legal reasons, the appeal must be 
dismissed. 
(see para. 58) 
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