CELEX: C2003/124/37
Language: en
Date: 2003-05-24 00:00:00
Title: Order of the Court of First Instance of 6 March 2003 in Case T-226/00 DEP and T-227/00 DEP: Nan Ya Plastics Corporation and Far Eastern Textiles Ltd v Council of the European Union (Taxation of costs)

24.5.2003              EN                          Official Journal of the European Union                                          C 124/21
       ORDER OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE                                The applicant claims that the Court should:
                         of 6 March 2003
                                                                           —     annul Commission Decision of 30 October 2002 (C 31/
                                                                                 2001 (ex NN 156/1999 and N 288/1998));
in Case T-226/00 DEP and T-227/00 DEP: Nan Ya Plastics
Corporation and Far Eastern Textiles Ltd v Council of the
                       European Union ( 1)                                 —     order the Commission to pay the costs.
                        (Taxation of costs)
                         (2003/C 124/37)
                                                                           Pleas in law and main arguments
                   (Language of the case: English)
                                                                           In the contested decision the Commission found that the
In Cases T-226/00 DEP and T-227/00 DEP: Nan Ya Plastics                    applicant had received public funds from the Federal Republic
Corporation, established in Taipei, Taiwan (China), and Far                of Germany in the amount of DEM 6 636 000, which were
Eastern Textiles Ltd, established in Taipei, represented by P. De          regarded as State aid. The Commission ordered the Federal
Baere, lawyer, with an address for service in Luxembourg, v                Republic of Germany to recover from the applicant aid in
Council of the European Union (Agents: S. Marquardt and G.                 the amount of EUR 1 120 000 together with interest. The
Berrisch): Application for taxation of the costs to be paid by             Commission takes the view that the aid was not kept to a
the defendant to the applicants following the orders made by               minimum and, in support of that view, refers to the acquisition
the Court of First Instance on 19 September 2001 in Case                   by the applicant of a holding in a supply business.
T-226/00 Nan Ya Plastics v Council and Case T-227/00 Far
Eastern Textiles v Council, not published in the European
Court Reports, the Court of First Instance (Fifth Chamber,
Extended Composition), composed of: R. García-Valdecasas,
                                                                           The applicant claims that the Commission has abused its
President, P. Lindh, R.M. Moura Ramos, J.D. Cooke and H.
                                                                           discretion by ordering the recovery of aid.
Legal, Judges, Registrar: H. Jung, has made an order on 6 March
2003, the operative part of which is as follows:
The amount of costs to be paid by the Council to the applicants in         The applicant submits that the Commission’s assumption that
Cases T-226/00 and T-227/00 is fixed at EUR 43 000.                        the acquisition of the shareholding was merely beneficial to
                                                                           the success of the restructuring, but not necessary, is incorrect.
                                                                           The acquisition of that shareholding was an integral part of
( 1) OJ C 316 of 04.11.2000.
                                                                           the restructuring plan of the investors; only in that way, could
                                                                           they acquire in the short term know-how of the applicant’s
                                                                           business to ensure the success of the restructuring within a
                                                                           reasonable period.
Action brought on 16 January 2003 by Schmitz-Gotha                         Furthermore, the applicant claims that the Commission wrong-
Fahrzeugwerke GmbH against the Commission of the                           ly assumes that the profits from the acquisition of the
                     European Communities                                  shareholding were not taken into account in the investors’
                                                                           business plan. The profits were taken into account in the
                          (Case T-17/03)                                   investors’ plan as part of the expected growth in the applicant’s
                                                                           profits.
                         (2003/C 124/38)
                   (Language of the case: German)                          Finally, the applicant submits that even if the need to acquire
                                                                           the shareholding is denied, the order requiring repayment of
                                                                           the part sum of DEM 700 000 was an abuse of discretion,
                                                                           because liquid capital of the undertaking of that amount was
An action against the Commission of the European Communi-                  directly available in return for the purchase price.
ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities on 16 January 2003 by Schmitz-
Gotha Fahrzeugwerke GmbH, Gotha (Germany), represented
by M. Matzat, lawyer.