IJssel-Vliet Combinatie BV v Minister van Economische Zaken.
Date: 1996-10-15
25 IJssel-Vliet submits that, by providing in those Guidelines that aid for the construction of a fishing vessel cannot be considered compatible with the common market unless it is consistent with the objectives of the common fisheries policy, the Commission has disregarded the import of the Sixth Directive. It further submits that, contrary to the terms of the Guidelines, any aid for the construction of a fishing vessel referred to in Article 1(a) of the Sixth Directive is ipso facto compatible with the common market provided that it does not exceed the ceiling set by the Commission. Under that Directive, the Commission' s role is confined to verifying that the condition as to the ceiling is observed. IJssel-Vliet relies in that regard on the judgment in Joined Cases C-356/90 and C-180/91 Belgium v Commission [1993] ECR I-2323.
26 It must, however, be remembered that the Sixth Directive is based on Article 92(3)(d) of the Treaty and thus concerns only one category of aids which "may be considered to be compatible with the common market". The relevant provisions of that Directive faithfully reproduce that wording (see the second indent of Article 1(d), and Article 4(1), of the Sixth Directive; see also, to the same effect, paragraph 32 of the judgment in Belgium v Commission, cited above).
31 The first paragraph of Article 42 of the Treaty, which acknowledges that the common agricultural policy takes precedence over the objectives of the Treaty in the field of competition, makes it clear that any application in this field of the Treaty provisions relating to competition is subject to account being taken of the objectives set out in Article 39 of the Treaty, namely those of the common agricultural policy (see, in that regard, Case C-280/93 Germany v Commission [1994] ECR I-4973).
33 When assessing whether an aid granted to the fisheries sector is compatible with the common market, the Commission must therefore take account of the requirements of the common fisheries policy, which are indeed those of the common market.
36 As regards the first part, Article 93(1) of the Treaty provides that the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, is to keep under constant review the systems of aid existing in those States. It is to propose to them any appropriate measures required by the progressive development or by the functioning of the common market. That provision thus involves an obligation of regular, periodic cooperation on the part of the Commission and the Member States, from which neither the Commission nor a Member State can release itself for an indefinite period depending on the unilateral will of either of them (see Case C-135/93 Spain v Commission [1995] ECR I-1651).
37 The Guidelines are based on Article 93(1) of the Treaty and are thus one element of that obligation of regular, periodic cooperation from which neither the Commission nor a Member State can release itself. They also ° at least as regards relations between the Commission and the Netherlands ° conform strictly to the spirit of regular, periodic cooperation envisaged by the said Treaty article between the Commission and the Member States.
42 Furthermore, in Case C-313/90 CIRFS and Others v Commission [1993] ECR I-1125, paragraph 35, the Court recognized that a "discipline" of the same legal nature as the Guidelines, whose rules were accepted by the Member States, was binding.
43 In the present case, the Commission approved the amendments to the national aid scheme only to the extent that aid granted by the Netherlands Government for the construction of fishing vessels complied with the Guidelines. In those circumstances, by putting the amendments into effect, the Netherlands Government accepted the rules laid down in the Guidelines. In accordance with the CIRFS judgment, cited above, those Guidelines are binding on that Member State.