Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:1997:135
Date: 1997-09-25
Language of the case: English
Court formation: Fifth Chamber, Extended Composition
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (1951)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition;Environment
Concepts: Investments and financial aid
Procedure: Action for annulment - successful
Origin: United Kingdom

Summary of the Judgment 
ECSC — Aid to the steel industry — Authorization by the Commission — Conditions for grant­
ing aid intended to bring existing plant into line with new environmental protection standards — 
Strict interpretation — RepUcement of existing pUnt by new phnt — Excluded 
(ECSC Treaty, Art. 4; Commission Decision No 3855/91/ECSC) 
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SUMMARY — CASE T-150/95 
The clear wording of Article 3 of Decision 
N o 3855/91 establishing Community rules 
for aid to the steel industry does not provide 
for the possibility of granting aid to firms 
which, instead of simply adapting existing 
plant, decide to replace it by new plant meet­
ing the new environmental protection stan­
dards, even though the EC guidelines on 
State aid for environmental protection, pub­
lished in 1994, allow for such a possibility. 
Firstly, Decision N o 3855/91, which, as a 
derogation from Article 4 of the ECSC 
Treaty, must be interpreted stricdy, intro­
duced rules which allow aid to be granted to 
the steel industry in a limited number of 
specified cases, and Article 1(1) thereof pos­
its the principle that such aid may be deemed 
Community aid and therefore compatible 
with the orderly functioning of the common 
market only if it satisfies the provisions of 
Articles 2 to 5. The compatibility of aid must 
therefore be assessed in the light of those 
provisions. 
Secondly, the automatic application to the 
steel sector of the EC guidelines on State aid 
for environmental protection is not provided 
for in Decision N o 3855/91, nor can it be 
inferred from the principle stated in the pre­
amble to that decision, that the steel industry 
and other industries must have equal access 
to aid for environmental protection. 
Thirdly, the EC framework on State aid for 
environmental protection in force when 
Decision N o 3855/91 was adopted did not 
provide for the possibility, allowed in the 
1994 guidelines, of granting aid for invest­
ment intended to replace existing plant by 
new plant. 
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