CELEX: C2001/028/25
Language: en
Date: 2001-01-27 00:00:00
Title: Case C-410/00: Action brought on 9 November 2000 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Kingdom of Sweden

C 28/14                EN                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                         27.1.2001
The applicant claims that the Court should:                                     Commission is inconsistent in its criteria in this regard,
                                                                                since in paragraph 35 of the contested decision it
                                                                                describes the aid as aid to investment while, on the other
                                                                                hand, in paragraph 38 it describes it as operating aid.
—     annul the Commission decision of 26 July 2000(1); and
                                                                          (1) Commission Decision C(2000) 2465 Final concerning the system
—     order the defendant institution to pay the costs.                       of aid granted by Spain for the purchase of industrial vehicles by
                                                                              means of the ‘Convenio de Colaboración’ of 26 February 1997
                                                                              between the Ministerio de Industria y Energı́a and the Instituto de
                                                                              Crédito Official.
Pleas in law and main arguments
—     Indeterminate nature of the contested decision: delimi-
      tation of the benefits covered respectively by Article 1
      (incompatible aid) and Article 2 (aid incompatible with
                                                                          Action brought on 9 November 2000 by the Commission
      the common market and, accordingly, to be recovered) is
                                                                          of the European Communities against the Kingdom of
      impossible. The whole category of undertakings referred
                                                                                                          Sweden
      to in Article 1 and, in particular, those which are caught
      by the definition of ‘operating at local or regional level
      does not exist as a concept under Spanish law’.                                                (Case C-410/00)
                                                                                                      (2001/C 28/25)
—     Non-selective aid: the measures contained in the Convenio
      do not favour certain undertakings or productions, since
      the subsidies which it envisages are not aimed at a defined         An action against the Kingdom of Sweden was brought
      set of recipients but at all possible beneficiaries in general.     before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on
      The fact of requiring that beneficiaries should be natural          9 November 2000 by the Commission of the European
      persons or small or medium-sized enterprises constitutes            Communities, represented by Marie Wolfcarius and Christina
      an objective condition requiring that they be in an                 Tufvesson, Legal Advisers in the Commission’s Legal Service,
      objectively similar situation.                                      acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at
                                                                          the office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, also of that service,
                                                                          Wagner Centre, Kirchberg.
—     Absence of discrimination: the implementing rules for
      the Convenio do not require that the vehicle which must             The applicant claims that the Court should:
      be withdrawn from circulation should belong to the
      beneficiary of the subsidy — the vehicle may belong to a            1.    declare that, by failing to adopt the laws, regulations
      third party with which the beneficiary may have entered                   and administrative provisions necessary to comply with
      into an agreement to that end. Thus, there is no distortion               Council Directive 96/48/EC (1) of 23 July 1996 on the
      of competition to the detriment of those hauliers not                     interoperability of the trans-European high-speed rail
      established in Spain.                                                     system, the Kingdom of Sweden has failed to fulfil its
                                                                                obligations under that directive,
—     Competition is not distorted: the impact at Community               2.    order the Kingdom of Sweden to bear the costs.
      level of the system of aid provided for by the Convenio
      on competition in transport is entirely insignificant —
      the requirements laid down in Article 87(1) EC are not
                                                                          Pleas in law and main arguments
      met.
                                                                          The pleas in law and main arguments are the same as those
—     Infringement of Article 87(3)(c) EC: in the view of the             relied on in Case C-407/00 (2); the period prescribed for
      Kingdom of Spain, concern for the environment and                   transposition of the directive expired on 8 April 1999.
      traffic safety justify application in the present case of
      Article 87(3)(c), since it is clear that the measures
      proposed in those two sectors will have a positive impact,          (1) OJ L 235, 17.9.1996, p. 6.
                                                                          (2) See p. 13 of this Official Journal.
      without resulting in an increase in capacity. The measures
      provided for in the Convenio cannot be characterised as
      operating aid but rather as aid for investment linked to
      the restructuring of the pool of industrial vehicles. The