Order — ECLI:EU:T:2016:142
Date: 2016-03-09
Language of the case: French
Subject matter: State aids;Competition
Procedure: Action for annulment - inadmissible
Origin: Belgium

Summary — Order of the General Court (Ninth Chamber), 9 March 2016 Actions for annulment — Actionable measures — Concept — Measures producing binding legal effects — Letter from the Commission informing a Member State of its preliminary investigation of an existing aid scheme as being incompatible with the internal market and the probable adoption of appropriate measures — Letter not producing binding legal effects — Application inadmissible (Arts 108(1) TFEU and 263 TFEU; Council Regulation No 659/1999, Arts 17(1), and 18) A letter adopted by the Commission in the context of the cooperation stage referred to in Article 17(1) of Regulation No 659/1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article [108 TFEU], whereby the Commission informs the Member State of its preliminary investigation of an existing aid scheme does not constitute a measure producing definitive legal effects, capable of forming the subject-matter of an annulment action under Article 263 TFEU. Such a letter constitutes only a preparatory measure prior to possible proposals for appropriate measures which the Commission may adopt pursuant to Article 18 of that regulation. Given that such a proposal for appropriate measures is not a challengeable act, since in the absence of acceptance by the Member State of the appropriate measures proposed, that Member State is not obliged to adopt them, preparatory acts occurring prior to that proposal for appropriate measures do not, a fortiori, constitute measures producing binding legal effects. Moreover, in the case of acts adopted by a procedure involving several stages, particularly where they are the culmination of an internal procedure, it is only those measures which definitively determine the position of the institution upon the conclusion of that procedure which are open to challenge and not intermediate measures whose purpose is to prepare the final decision. (see paras 15, 18-20, 27)