CELEX: C2001/289/68
Language: en
Date: 2001-10-13 00:00:00
Title: Case T-166/01: Action brought on 23 July 2001 by Lucchini S.p.A. against the Commission of the European Communities

13.10.2001             EN                       Official Journal of the European Communities                                      C 289/29
Action brought on 23 July 2001 by Lucchini S.p.A. against                       been considered only environmental to be production
       the Commission of the European Communities                               investments and thus applied rules which were not
                                                                                applicable to the contested investments. Once it had
                                                                                established that the investments notified related only to
                         (Case T-166/01)                                        the environment and not to production, the Commission
                                                                                should have made its decision on the basis only of the
                                                                                scheme of rules in Article 3 of the steel aid code which is
                         (2001/C 289/68)                                        applicable in this case and not of the rules which govern
                                                                                the Commission’s monitoring activities in cases in which
                                                                                there are production investments as well as environmen-
                    (Language of the case: Italian)                             tal investments.
An action against the Commission of the European Communi-                  —    Internal inconsistencies in the reasoning of the Com-
ties was brought before the Court of Justice of the European                    mission which, while holding the investments notified to
Communities on 23 July 2001 by Lucchini S.p.A., represented                     be merely in production, criticised the Italian authorities
by Giovanni Vezzoli.                                                            for not making any distinction between production costs
                                                                                and environment costs, a distinction which it could make
                                                                                only if the investments were held by the Commission to
                                                                                be environmental.
The applicant claims that the Court should:
—     as regards its main claim on the substance: annul Article 1          —    Failure to state reasons, in so far as the defendant did not
      of the Commission Decision of 21 December 2000                            furnish any objective account of the reasons why it
      (C(2000) 4368, OJ 2001 L 163 of 20 June 2001), where                      reached the conclusions which led it to consider the aid
      the Commission declared the State aid which Italy was                     notified incompatible with the common market, nor
      planning to implement for Lucchini SpA amounting to                       of the reasons why it considered that the contested
      ITL 13,5 billion (EUR 6,98 million) to be incompatible                    investments related to production installations rather
      with the common market;                                                   than environmental structures.
—     in any event: order the Commission to bear the costs.                —    Differences in the treatment of the applicant and that of
                                                                                other undertakings in certain important points of the
                                                                                reasoning of the Commission relating to aid granted in
                                                                                similar cases.
Pleas in law and main arguments
The contested decision closes a procedure which began with
the formal notification of the Commission by Italy under
Article 3 of the steel aid code of a plan for state aid for
Lucchini SpA for investments for environmental purposes to
be made at its plant in Piombino. In that procedure, the
defendant maintained that the investments notified were
primarily for the purposes of production rather than of
benefit to the environment and were moreover investments                   Action brought on 24 July 2001 by SAGEM against the
necessitated by other production investments for the modern-                       Commission of the European Communities
isation of the plant at Piombino and that, as such, they were
not eligible for State aid programmes.
                                                                                                   (Case T-169/01)
The applicant relies on the following pleas in support of its
claims:                                                                                            (2001/C 289/69)
—     Misuse of powers by reason of misrepresentation of the                                 (Language of the case: English)
      facts in so far as the Commission made a manifest error
      of assessment in evaluating without stating any reasons
      the investments notified, described by the Commission
      itself as being for both production and environmental                An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
      purposes.                                                            ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
                                                                           European Communities on 24 July 2001 by SAGEM SA,
—     Breach and misapplication of rules of law, in so far as the          having its registered office in Paris, represented by Dominique
      defendant considered investments which should have                   Berlin of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Paris (France).