Press Release: State aid: European Commission refers Spain to Court for failure to respect Court ruling to recover illegal aid

The European Commission has decided to refer Spain to the European Court of Justice for failure to implement a Court ruling of December 2006, which declared that Spain had failed to recover incompatible state aid granted by certain Basque Provinces, as ordered by Commission decisions of July 2001. Although almost four years have elapsed since the judgment, Spain has yet to complete the recovery procedure. As this is a referral to the Court for failure to respect a previous Court ruling, the Commission has asked the Court to impose a daily penalty payment of €236 044.8 for each day after the second Court ruling until the infringement ends and a lump sum of €25817.4 per day for the period between the 2006 Court judgement and the second Court ruling. These payments would act as an incentive to ensure that the illegal aid amounts are recovered rapidly from the beneficiaries.