Eu Courts’ Review of Decisions Imposing Fines in Eu State Aids Cases

MIKUŠOVÁ JANA: EU Courts’ review of decisions imposing fi nes in EU state aids cases. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 2013, LXI, No. 4, pp. 1017–1021 The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive view on the application of the principle of proportionality in the Commission’s decisions imposing fi nes in the area of state aids as well as the EU courts exercise of the jurisdiction over these decisions. The primary and secondary sources of law and the case law would be investigated in this article. The author would like to briefl y describe the historical background of the application of the principle of proportionality and by analysing the case law follow the evolvement of the application of the principle. The study should bring the answer on question whether the rule of law (in this case principle of proportionality) is safeguarded enough by the courts review of the decisions imposing fi nes. state aid, court review, principle of proportionality, fi nes The principle of proportionality is one of the “constitutional”1 principles of the European Union. It plays an important role also as a general principle of administrative law, and such it requires each decision and measure to be based on a fair assessment and balancing of interests, as well as on a reasonable choice of means2. This general meaning of the principle is not only valid for national law, but also for European law. Regardless of whether a case concerns agricultural issues, free movement of goods, state aid or citizenship, the Court requires that all administrative acts or decisions and all legislation be in conformity with the general principle of proportionality3. When assuming illegality of granted state aid both Commission and Court have to do with the member states’ interests. Although the principle of proportionality should be taken into the account, the question is whether it is used and so far, whether it is used properly. Gerards4 see the diff erences in the application of this principle particularly in relation to penalties or fi nancial burdens and proportionality in relation to discretionary policy choices. According to his point of view the test applied to penalties or other fi nancial burdens is mainly a test of excessiveness: the essence of the proportionality argument in these cases is mostly that the penalty was too drastic in relation to the aim of the measure in question. The article will focus on a standard test of proportionality that is applied by the ECJ on the state aid cases. It will also focus on the review of the Commission decision by the courts. 1 The European Union does not have its own constitution, but according the Treaty on the functioning of European Union there exist a set of principle on which the european lawmaking and application of european law is based. 2 GERARDS, J. H., 2005: Proportionality review in European law. 3 TRIDIMAS, T., 2006: The general principles of EU law; p. 137. 4 GERARDS, J. H., 2005: Proportionality review in European law.