CELEX: C2001/212/52
Language: en
Date: 2001-07-28 00:00:00
Title: Removal from the Register of Case T-205/00

28.7.2001             EN                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                      C 212/27
The applicant claims that the Court should:                              Finally, the applicant does not accept that the letter of intent
                                                                         gave rise to State aid to which the Treaty rules on State aid
—     annul Article 2 of the decision of 29 November 2000 of             applied or that, if there were any such aid, it was incompatible
      the Commission of the European Communities in Case                 with the common market. That question is, however, not of
      No. C32/93 declaring the aid scheme implemented by                 practical concern to the applicant, since, in the applicant’s
      Spain in favour of the shipping company Ferries Golfo de           submissions, no order can lawfully made for the recovery of
      Vizcaya to be incompatible with the common market;                 such aid, if any.
—     order the Commission to pay the costs.
                                                                         (1) Judgment of 28.1.1999 in Case T-14/96, BAI v Commission
                                                                             [1999] ECR II-139.
Pleas in law and main arguments
The applicant, formerly known as Ferries Golfo de Vizcaya
S.A., was granted alleged State aid relating to a new ferry service
between Bilbao (Spain) and Portsmouth (United Kingdom),                         Removal from the Register of Case T-163/00 (1)
pursuant to a letter of intent which was approved by the
Commission in June 1995. That approval decision was                                               (2001/C 212/51)
subsequently annulled by the Court of First Instance (1). The
decision contested in the present case was taken by the                                     (Language of the case: French)
Commission in November 2000 following a re-examination
of the case.                                                             By order of 28 March 2001, the President of the Chamber of
                                                                         the Court of First Instance of the European Communities has
                                                                         ordered the removal from the Register of Case T-163/00,
The applicant alleges that the contested decision is wrong,              Rosemarie Carotti v Court of Auditors of the European
insofar as it concludes that the agreement was not notified in           Communities.
accordance with Article 93(3) [now Article 88(3)] of the Treaty
because it was not notified by the Spanish Government. The
Commission did not raise with the applicant’s lawyers or with            (1) OJ C 247 of 26.8.2000.
the Spanish Government any question about the insufficiency
in law of communication from the prospective beneficiary’s
lawyers, rather than from the Member State concerned, as
‘information’ for the purposes of Article 93(3) of the Treaty.
Furthermore, the information provided by the applicant’s
lawyers was used by the Commission for the purposes of its                      Removal from the Register of Case T-205/00 (1)
decision of June 1995.
                                                                                                  (2001/C 212/52)
The applicant further submits that a notified State aid that is
the subject of a favourable decision before it is granted is                                (Language of the case: French)
irrecoverable. The beneficiary has a legitimate expectation of
which it cannot be deprived by reason of annulment of the                By order of 27 March 2001, the President of the Chamber of
Commission’s favourable decision on the basis of which the               the Court of First Instance of the European Communities has
beneficiary accepted the aid. Any contrary solution would                ordered the removal from the Register of Case T-205/00,
undermine the entire scheme of State aid rules under the                 Renco SPA against the Council of the European Union.
Treaty and would have manifestly and gravely objectionable
consequences in practice.                                                (1) OJ C 285 of 7.10.2000.