General Court upholds Commission decision requesting recovery of unlawful aid granted under Czech agricultural support schemes
Two Czech agricultural companies, Úsovsko Agro and Úsovsko Eko, challenged a European Commission decision requiring the Czech Republic to recover unlawful State aid granted to large enterprises under orchard restructuring and irrigation support schemes.
The Commission decision, adopted in April 2024, found that the Czech authorities had unlawfully granted aid to several large agricultural companies before formally notifying amended schemes extending eligibility to large enterprises.
Before the General Court, the applicants argued that the Commission had failed to provide adequate reasoning, had wrongly assessed the compatibility of the aid with the internal market, and had infringed their right to be heard.
The Court has held that the decision was sufficiently reasoned. In particular, the Court has considered that the Commission had adequately explained the scope of its decision, identifying with sufficient clarity the aid schemes concerned, the period covered, the reasons to consider the aid granted before the Commission’s authorisation as unlawful new aid as well as sufficiently identified the aid subject to recovery.
The Court has further found that the Commission had correctly applied the 2014 Agricultural State Aid Guidelines, and explained that counterfactual scenarios submitted in support of an aid application must be provided at the time of the application and not only once the Commission opens the formal investigation procedure.
Regarding the rights of defence, the Court has also recalled that aid beneficiaries may only be given the opportunity to submit observations during the formal state aid investigation.
For more information, see the full judgement.