Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Actions for failure to act — Natural or legal persons — Actionable omissions — Failure to adopt a decision as to how to respond to a complaint seeking to have State aid declared incompatible with the common market — Admissibility of an action brought by a party concerned within the meaning of Article 88(2) EC — (Arts 88(2) EC, 230, fourth para., EC and 232, third para., EC)

2. State aid — Investigation by the Commission — Recognition as a party concerned within the meaning of Article 88(2) EC — Condition — Existence of a legitimate interest — (Arts 88(2) EC and 230, fourth para., EC)

Summary

1. Just as the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC allows individuals to bring an action for annulment against a measure of an institution not addressed to them provided that the measure is of direct and individual concern to them, the third paragraph of Article 232 EC must be interpreted as also entitling them to bring an action for failure to act against an institution which they claim has failed to adopt a measure which would have concerned them in the same way.

An individual who has referred to the Commission a complaint objecting to the existence of an aid incompatible with the common market is individually concerned, within the meaning of the third paragraph of Article 232 EC, by the Commission ' s failure to rule on that complaint where he must be considered to be an interested person for the purposes of Article 88(2) EC, a concept which includes not only the undertaking or undertakings benefiting from aid, but equally those persons, undertakings or associations whose interests might be affected by the grant of aid, particularly competing undertakings and professional associations.

see paras 29, 31, 33-34

2. In order to be recognised as having the status of a party concerned within the meaning of Article 88(2) EC, a natural or legal person must be able to establish that he has a legitimate interest in whether or not the aid measures in question should be put into effect, or maintained if they have already been granted. To recognise any person having a purely general or indirect interest with regard to the State measures to which objection is taken as having the status of a party concerned within the meaning of Article 88(2) EC would deprive the concept of a " person individually concerned" within the meaning of the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC of all legal significance in the context of actions for annulment brought against decisions taken on the basis of Article 88(3) EC.

The fact of having made a complaint to the Commission is not in itself sufficient to confer on a natural or legal person the status of a party concerned within the meaning of Article 88(2) EC, since such a person cannot establish a legitimate interest in requesting the Commission to examine the compatibility of the measures to which he is objecting with the Community rules on State aid. Such an interest cannot be established, in particular, in the absence of a direct causal link between the measures objected to and the damage which the complainant claims to have suffered as a result of such measures being implemented.

see paras 35-36, 39, 42, 44-45