Action brought on 11 February 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

(Case C-69/05)

(2005/C 106/29)

Language of the case: French

An action against the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 11 February 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities, represented by Florence Clotuche-Duvieusart and Agnieszka Stobiecka-Kuik, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg.

The Commission claims that the Court should:

Pleas in law and main arguments

Article 21(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC Treaty (now Article 88 of the EC Treaty) provides that ‘Member States shall submit to the Commission annual reports on all existing aid schemes with regard to which no specific reporting obligations have been imposed in a conditional decision’. The submission of those reports in the agricultural sector is governed by the ‘Guidelines for State aid in the agriculture sector’ (2000/C/28/02), which state that ‘a single report should be presented to the Commission, for the first time before 1 July 2001, and thereafter no later than 30 June each year, covering all aid schemes for the agricultural sector in the Member State concerned’. The binding nature of guidelines in the field of State aid which have been accepted as appropriate measures by a Member State has been confirmed by the case-law of the Court of Justice. The guidelines for State aid in the agricultural sector were accepted by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, since it never stated in writing that it contested the appropriate measures in those guidelines. Consequently, by failing to communicate the reports in question for the years 2000 and 2001, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has failed to fulfil its obligations.

(1)  OJ L 83 of 27.3.1999, p. 1.