Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:1997:210
Date: 1997-12-18
Language of the case: Spanish
Court formation: First Chamber, Extended Composition
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition
Concepts: Applications by natural or legal persons
Procedure: Action for annulment - inadmissible
Origin: Spain

Summary of the Judgment
Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Measures of direct and individual concern
to them — Decision to close the file on a complaint lodged by an association of beneficiaries of an
undertaking's mutual provident association objecting to State aid awarded to that undertaking
— Decision not affecting the legal sphere of the association — Inadmissible
(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para.)
An association formed by the beneficiaries of
a mutual provident association of an under­
taking integrated in the general social secu­
rity scheme is not entitled to contest a
decision by which the Commission closes
the file on a complaint lodged by that asso­
ciation objecting to State aid allegedly
awarded to that undertaking in the form,
II - 2529
SUMMARY — CASE T-178/94
first, of the difference between the amount
which the undertaking actually paid to the
mutual association by way of contributions
and the normal amount payable to the gen­
eral social security scheme — which, owing
to a reduction coefficient, it did not have to
pay — and, secondly, of annulment of a
guarantee which the undertaking was
required to maintain in force so that the
mutual association could always count on
adequate cover for the benefits which it had
to supply over a certain period.
The decision to close the file, which is in
reality addressed to the Member State con­
cerned, does not produce binding legal
effects of such a nature as significantly to
alter the legal situation of such an associa­
tion, since, if repayment to the Member State
were to be ordered, that State would, having
regard to the national law in question, be
under no obligation then to pay the contri­
butions to the members of the association;
moreover, there is nothing to support the
view that the association could be revived.
Furthermore, an association of employees of
an undertaking which allegedly benefited
from a State aid in no way competes with
that undertaking and cannot establish an
interest in bringing proceedings on account
of competitive effects.
II - 2530