«(State aid – Operating loans – Admissibility – Time-limit for bringing an action – Confirmatory act – Action for annulment – Existing aid or new aid – Principle of tempus regit actum – Export aid – Operating aid – Reasonable time-limit)»

1.. Actions for annulment – Time-limit – Starting point – Date of publication – Date of becoming aware of the measure – Subsidiary character (Art. 230, fifth para., EC)

2.. Actions for annulment – Actionable measures – Definition – Measures with binding legal effects – Preparatory measures – Excluded (Art. 230 EC)

3.. Actions for annulment – Actionable measures – Measures with binding legal effects – Commission decision concluding the formal review procedure for examining State aid, provided for in Article 88(2) EC – Possibility of challenging the classification as new aid, even where there was no such challenge by an action against the decision to open the formal review procedure (Arts 88(2) EC and 230 EC)

4.. State aid – Prohibition – Derogations – Aids capable of benefiting from the derogation under Article 87(3)(c) EC – Operating aid – Excluded (Art. 87(3)(c) EC)

5.. State aid – Planned aid – Review by the Commission – Compliance with a reasonable time-limit – Principle of good administration (Council Regulation No 659/1999, Art. 7(6))

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Fifth Chamber, Extended Composition) 27 November 2003 (1)

((State aid – Operating loans – Admissibility – Time-limit for bringing an action – Confirmatory act – Action for annulment – Existing aid or new aid – Principle of tempus regit actum – Export aid – Operating aid – Reasonable time-limit))

In Case T-190/00,

applicant,

v

defendant,

APPLICATION for annulment of Commission Decision 2000/319/EC of 22 December 1999 on the State aid scheme implemented by Italy for the production, processing and marketing of products listed in Annex I to the EC Treaty (Sicilian Regional Law No 68, of 27 September 1995) (OJ 2000 L 110, p. 17), in so far as it finds that the State aid granted under Article 6 of Sicilian Regional Law No 68 of 27 September 1995 to undertakings in the sectors of agriculture and fisheries is incompatible with the common market and requires Italy to withdraw that aid,

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (Fifth Chamber, Extended Composition),

composed of: R. García-Valdecasas, President, P. Lindh, J.D. Cooke, A.W.H. Meij and H. Legal, Judges,

Registrar: J. Palacio González, Principal Administrator,

having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 15 May 2003,

gives the following

This attitude is motivated by the fact that agricultural production, being necessarily cyclical in character, must be financed by specific methods.

.

Arguments of the parties

Findings of the Court

First plea: infringement of Article 88(1) EC, of the principles of the protection of legitimate expectations and legal certainty, of essential procedural requirements and of Article 253 EC on the basis of a failure to state reasons

Admissibility

─ Findings of the Court

Substance

─ Arguments of the parties

─ Findings of the Court

Second plea: infringement of the principle of tempus regit actum and misuse of powers

Arguments of the parties

Findings of the Court

─ 1. Definition of the rules applicable ratione temporis

─ 2. Content of the rules applicable ratione temporis

─ 3. Application of those rules in the present case

Third plea: infringement of Article 87 EC, misuse of powers and infringement of Article 253 EC by a failure to state reasons

1. Complaints relating to the notion of export aid

─ Arguments of the parties

─ Findings of the Court

2. Complaints relating to the notions of aid for rescuing and restructuring firms in difficulty and employment aid

─ Arguments of the parties

─ Findings of the Court

3. Complaint relating to the notion of operating aid granted to reschedule past debts

─ Arguments of the parties

─ Findings of the Court

Fourth plea: infringement of essential procedural requirements and failure to complete within a reasonable period the procedures laid down in Article 87 EC

Arguments of the parties

Findings of the Court

On those grounds,

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Fifth Chamber, Extended Composition)

hereby:

García-Valdecasas

Lindh

Cooke

Meij

Legal

Delivered in open court in Luxembourg on 24 November 2003.

H. Jung

R. García-Valdecasas

Registrar

President