Judgment_paragraph 162 · British Steel plc v Commission of the European Communities (T-89/96)

162The applicant claims that the Commission failed to secure the agreement of the ECSC Consultative Committee to the final aid package. The amount of aid originally proposed and the conditions for its authorisation were altered between the meeting of the Consultative Committee on 25 October 1995 and the Council's final assent on 22 December 1995. Referring to the case-law of the Court of Justice concerning consultation of the European Parliament in the context of decisions taken pursuant to Article 235 of the EC Treaty (now Article 308 EC) (see Case C-65/90 Parliament v Council [1992] ECR I-4593), the applicant submits that the Committee should have been re-consulted because the substance of the contested decision is, in two respects, at variance with the proposal put to the Consultative Committee: first, the amount of the aid is 22% higher and, secondly, the restrictions on sales are markedly different. However, the Committee was never given an opportunity to express a view on the distortion of competition which this additional aid was liable to engender or on whether the new conditions were a suitable means of preventing this.

British Steel plc v Commission of the European Communities (T-89/96)

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