Court of Justice clarifies when the Commission has “defined its position” on a State aid complaint
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has dismissed an appeal in case C-69/25 P against the General Court’s judgement in case T-141/23. In this ruling, the Court addresses the “definition of a position” by the Commission in response to a complainant’s call to act.
The dispute arose when the Netherlands granted funding to beam trawlers. The complainants argued that this had to be assessed as unlawful State aid. The Commission saw no element constituting potential unlawful State aid. It responded with a “pre-closure letter” announcing it would close the file. An action for failure to adopt a decision was then launched by the complainants.
Confirming the General Court’s approach and the case law, the Court has ruled that an institution is not required to systematically reproduce, in its reply to a call to act, the content of its earlier findings, nor even to refer expressly to them, where the complainant has demonstrably understood the institution’s position. A reference to prior correspondence may suffice.
After the Commission has already made a position known in pre-litigation correspondence, a subsequent action for failure to act is unlikely to be considered admissible as the conditions of article 265 TFEU are not satisfied.
The Court recalled that the issue of the conditions for the admissibility of an action for failure to act is distinct from the issue whether an act adopted by the EU institution to which the request was made, which brings its failure to act to an end, may be the subject of an action for annulment.
For further information, see the Court of Justice’s judgement.