Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1998:118
Date: 1998-03-19
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Spain

Summary of the J u d g m e n t 
Actions for annulment —Judgment granting annulment — Effects — Obligation to adopt imple­
menting measures — Scope — Account to be taken of both the grounds and operative part of the 
judgment — Adoption of a fresh act on the basis of the previous preparatory acts — Whether 
permissible 
(EC Treaty, Art. 176) 
According to Article 176 of the Treaty, an 
institution whose act has been declared void 
must, in order to comply with the judgment 
and to implement it fully, have regard not 
only to the operative part of the judgment 
but also to the grounds which led to the 
judgment and constitute its essential basis, in 
so far as they are necessary to determine the 
exact meaning of what is stated in the opera­
tive part. It is those grounds which, on the 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-415/96 
one hand, identify the precise provision held 
to be illegal and, on the other, indicate the 
specific reasons which underlie the finding of 
illegality contained in the operative part and 
'which the institution concerned must take 
into account when replacing the annulled mea­
sure. 
The procedure for replacing such a measure 
may thus be resumed at the very point at 
which the illegality occurred, since annulment 
of a Community measure does not necessarily 
affect the preparatory acts leading up to its 
adoption. 
In that case, where the compatibility of State 
aid 'with the common market is being exam­
ined, the Commission may, without infringing 
the right to be heard, found its fresh decision 
exclusively on the information which it had 
at the time of the adoption of the annulled 
measure. 
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