CELEX: C2001/045/25
Language: en
Date: 2001-02-10 00:00:00
Title: Case C-457/00: Action brought on 18 December 2000 by the Kingdom of Belgium against the Commission of the European Communities

10.2.2001                EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                         C 45/13
       —     The Commission is wrong to accuse the French                             by the Walloon Region, to Hermann Heye consti-
             authorities of not having taken account of the                           tuted aid by virtue of the fact that the Walloon
             capacity of the market to absorb new quantities of                       Region had made a capital contribution in favour of
             regional wines produced following the planned                            Verlipack Holding II, the Commission misinterpret-
             varietal conversion.                                                     ed the concept of State aid and prejudged the
                                                                                      substance of the file, in breach of Articles 87 and
                                                                                      295 EC. The SRIW acted in accordance with the
                                                                                      criterion of the private investor. Following the
                                                                                      example of the private partners (the Beaulieu Group
(1) Commission Regulation (EC) No 1493/2000 of 10 July 2000
                                                                                      and the banks of the Verlipack Group), the SRIW,
    establishing the standard import values for determining the entry
    price of certain fruit and vegetables OJ 2000 L 170, p. 1.                        like the Walloon Region in the grant of its capital
(2) Council Regulation (EEC) No 822/87 of 16 March 1987 on the                        contribution, behaved like a private investor in the
    common organization of the market in wine (OJ 1987 L 84, p. 1).                   procedure for examining the file and bearing in
(3) Council Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999 of 17 May 1999 on the                        mind information supplied by the Heye Group
    common organisation of the market in wine OJ 1999 L 179, p. 1.                    which had all the appearances of credibility for
(4) Commission Regulation (EC) No 1227/2000 of 31 May 2000                            the future of the Verlipack Group. The fact that
    laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regu-                   insolvency occurred 22 months after the public
    lation (EC) No 1493/1999 (OJ 2000 L 143, p. 1).                                   interventions were made cannot demonstrate a
                                                                                      posteriori that, in March 1997, the SRIW, like the
                                                                                      Walloon Region, did not act as a private investor.
                                                                                      The Heye Group is the actual debtor of the funds
                                                                                      lent by the SRIW. The use made by the Heye Group
                                                                                      of the funds placed at its disposal by the SRIW under
                                                                                      normal market conditions cannot be made subject
                                                                                      to examination by the Commission pursuant to the
                                                                                      State aid rules, and, a fortiori, cannot be classified as
                                                                                      aid on the ground that those funds were initially of
                                                                                      public origin and their final beneficiary did not
Action brought on 18 December 2000 by the Kingdom                                     remain the Heye Group.
of Belgium against the Commission of the European
                              Communities                                       —     By taking the view that the whole of the compulsory
                                                                                      loan of 27 March 1997 of the Heye Group consti-
                            (Case C-457/00)                                           tuted aid, the Commission misinterpreted the con-
                                                                                      cept of aid. The clause for abandoning the debt
                                                                                      presented a less significant risk than the Commission
                             (2001/C 45/25)                                           might think, since, despite the insolvency of the
                                                                                      three operating companies which occurred in Janua-
An action against the Commission of the European Communi-                             ry 1999, that clause cannot prevent the repayment
ties was brought before the Court of Justice of the European                          of the amount of the SRIW’s loan by reason of the
                                                                                      early rescission of that agreement invoked by the
Communities on 18 December 2000 by the Kingdom of
Belgium, represented by A. Snoecx, acting as Agent, and by                            SRIW before the conditions of the contested aban-
                                                                                      donment clause were met.
J.M. De Backer, G. Vandersanden and L. Levi, of the Brussels
Bar, with an address for service in Luxembourg.
                                                                                —     Concerning the loan of 28 March 1997, the Com-
                                                                                      mission contented itself with applying its reference
The Kingdom of Belgium claims that the Court should:                                  rate automatically without carrying out an examin-
                                                                                      ation of the particular circumstances of the case,
—     annul the Commission decision of 20 September 2000,                             although the Belgian authorities were asking it to do
       No C 40/99, entitled ‘State Aid in favour of Verlipack —                       so. By so doing, the Commission declined to exercise
       Belgium’;                                                                      the discretion conferred upon it by Article 87 EC.
—      order the Commission to pay the costs.                                   —     In its examination of the capital contribution to
                                                                                      Verlipack Holding II, the Commission generalised
                                                                                      from interventions of a completely different legal
                                                                                      character, since it took into consideration the two
Pleas in law and main arguments                                                       loans granted by the SRIW to Hermann Heye as if
                                                                                      they had been direct capital contributions in favour
—      Infringement of Articles 87 and 295 EC                                         of Verlipack Holding II.
                                                                           —    Infringement of the duty to state reasons.
       —     By assuming that the loan of 28 March 1997 and
             the compulsory loan of 27 March 1997 granted by
             the Société Régionale d’Investissement de Wallonie
             (‘SRIW’), a limited liability company wholly owned