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 Court of Justice for failure to implement a previous Court ruling, which confirmed a Commission decision finding that aid granted to the Magefesa group was illegal and had to be recovered. Although over eight years have elapsed since the 2002 Court judgement, Spain has yet to complete the recovery procedure as regards Magefesa's Indosa subsidiary and the latter's own subsidiary CMD. Given that this is a referral to Court for failure to respect a previous Court ruling, the Commission has decided to ask the Court to impose a daily penalty payment of €131,136 for each day after the second Court ruling until the infringement ends and a lump sum based on €14,343 per day elapsed since the 2002 Court judgement until the second Court ruling. These payments would act as an incentive to ensure that the illegal aid were recovered rapidly from Magefesa's subsidiaries.