CELEX: C2005/229/16
Language: en
Date: 2005-09-17 00:00:00
Title: Case C-280/05: Action brought on 11 July 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Italian Republic

17.9.2005   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 229/8
            
         Action brought on 11 July 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Italian Republic
   (Case C-280/05)
   (2005/C 229/16)
   Language of the case: Italian
   An action against the Italian Republic was brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 11 July 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities, represented by V. Di Bucci and E. Righini, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg.
   The applicant claims that the Court should:
   
               1.
            
            
               declare that, by failing to take, within the prescribed period, the necessary measures to withdraw the aid scheme considered unlawful and incompatible with the common market by Commission Decision 2004/800/EC of 30 March 2004 on the State aid scheme put into effect by Italy providing for urgent measures to assist employment (notified on 1 April 2004 under document number C(2004) 930; OJ 2004 L 352, p. 10) and to recover from the recipients the aid granted under that scheme, and in any event by failing to inform the Commission of such measures, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 2, 3 and 4 of that Decision and the EC Treaty;
            
         
               2.
            
            
               order the Italian Republic to pay the costs.
            
         Pleas in law and main arguments
   The decision of the Commission requires Italy to withdraw the aid scheme referred to in Article 1, to take ‘all necessary measures to recover from the recipients the aid granted under the scheme referred to in Article 1 which has been unlawfully made available to the recipients’ and to cancel ‘all outstanding payments of aid with effect from the date of this Decision’. It must, in addition, inform the Commission, within two months of notification of the Decision, of ‘the measures taken to comply with it’.
   Given that the decision was notified on 1 April 2004 the period for compliance expired on 1 June 2004.
   So far as concerns the obligation to recover the aid unlawfully paid, it must be stated that, on expiry of the period prescribed, the Italian Republic had not yet informed the Commission of the measures taken to comply with that obligation and that the requests for information by the Commission remained unanswered.
   It appears clear that the Italian Republic, by failing to take, within the prescribed period, the necessary measures to withdraw the aid scheme considered unlawful and incompatible with the common market by the decision of the Commission and to recover from the recipients the aid granted under that scheme, and in any event by failing to inform the Commission of such measures, has failed and continues to fail to fulfil its obligations under the fourth paragraph of Article 249 EC and Articles 2, 3 and 4 of that decision.