Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:164
Date: 2002-03-12
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
State aid — Examination by the Commission — Power to adopt guidelines — Measures 
proposed to the Member States in the context of the constant review of the aid schemes 
governed by the guidelines — Acceptance by the Member States — Binding effect — 
Decisions on the ceilings for aid cover constituting an integral part of the guidelines on 
regional aid 
(Arts 87 EC and 88 EC) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-242/00 
In the exercise of the powers conferred on it 
by Articles 87 EC and 88 EC, the Com­
mission may adopt guidelines designed to 
indicate how it intends, under those 
articles, to exercise its discretion in regard 
to new aid or in regard to existing systems 
of aid. 
When they are based on Article 88(1) EC, 
those guidelines constitute one element of 
the regular and periodic cooperation under 
which the Commission, in conjunction with 
the Member States, must keep under con­
stant review existing systems of aid and 
propose to them any appropriate measures 
required by the progressive development or 
by the functioning of the common market. 
As also follows from Article 19(1) of 
Regulation No 659/1999, in the case where 
those proposals for appropriate measures 
are accepted by a Member State, that 
Member State will be bound by those 
measures. 
In particular, so far as the guidelines 
governing regional aid are concerned, 
decisions such as those fixing the ceilings 
for aid cover and updating such cover 
constitute one of the stages in a process 
designed to lay down the general conditions 
governing Community examination of 
regional aid schemes. Those decisions con­
sequently form an integral part of the 
guidelines on regional aid and have, in 
themselves, binding force only on condition 
that they have been accepted by the 
Member States. 
(see paras 27-29, 33-35) 
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