Press Release: State aid: Commission requests Italy to respect Court rulings on recovery of incompatible state aid

On 31 January, 2008, the European Commission formally requested Italy to implement two European Court of Justice decisions ordering the recovery of illegal and incompatible state aid. Although the relevant ECJ judgements date back to 2004 and 2006, the Italian authorities have still not notified the Commission that the recovery has been successfully completed. The Commission's requests take the form of 'reasoned opinions', the second step of infringement proceedings for failure to respect a Court judgement (Article 228 of the EC Treaty). If Italy continues to fail to comply with the ECJ decisions, the Commission may refer it to the Court for a second time and request the ECJ to impose fines until the aid has been fully recovered. These fines can take the form of periodic penalty payments, lump sums or both (see also MEMO/05/482).