Press Release: State aid: Commission to take Italy to court for failure to recover unlawful state aid

The European Commission on 7 April 2005 decided to refer Italy to the European Court of Justice for its failure to comply with a Commission decision of 30 March 2004. The decision found that an Italian scheme to assist purchasers of insolvent firms was contrary to EC Treaty rules on state aid (Article 87), and that the aid already paid out would have to be recovered from the recipients (see IP/04/405). A year later Italy had not yet notified any steps to recover the aid.