The General Court of the European Union (TGUE) has annulled this Wednesday the aid of 130 million that Italy granted to different airlines to compensate for the blow of the pandemic. The court agrees with Ryanair, which had appealed the payments. A few days ago he made the same decision about aid in Germany to Lufthansa.
The TGUE ruled in its ruling, still subject to appeal by the Italian authorities, that the European Commission did not sufficiently argue that the measure was not contrary to other Community regulations other than those relating to State aid.
In order to receive the aid, the airlines had to have assigned to all their employees based in Italy or in third-party companies that participated in their activities a salary that was at least equal to the minimum remuneration agreed in the national collective agreement for the air transport sector. .
In its analysis of the measure, the Community Executive decided not to initiate a formal investigation procedure on the understanding that the aid was compatible with the internal market, a possibility that it has as long as it demonstrates “clearly and unequivocally” the reasons for reaching that conclusion. However, the ruling understands that the evaluation of Brussels does not duly justify this decision.
The ruling indicates that the European Commission considered that the minimum wage requirement was “inextricably” linked to the aid and that it “was not inherent to the objective of the measure”, but it did so “without clearly and unequivocally showing the reasoning”. Nor was it well argued that it did not conflict with other provisions of European law.
Just two weeks ago, the same instance annulled the 6,000 million euro scheme that was raised in Germany to rescue Lufthansa, appealed by Ryanair and Condor.
