Judgment_paragraph 20 · British Steel plc v Commission of the European Communities and Others (C-1/98 P)

20The Court of First Instance pursued its reasoning as follows:76 Furthermore, and in any event, it is settled case-law of the Court of Justice that: “whilst the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations is one of the fundamental principles of the Community, traders cannot have a legitimate expectation that an existing situation which is capable of being altered by the Community institutions in the exercise of their discretionary power will be maintained”...77 The proper functioning of the common market in steel clearly involves the obvious need for constant adjustments to fluctuations in the economic situation and economic operators cannot claim a vested right to the maintenance of the legal situation existing at a given time...78 In that context, the applicant should, on any view, having regard to its very substantial economic importance and its participation on the ECSC Consultative Committee, have realised that an overriding need to adopt effective measures to safeguard the interests of the European steel industry would arise and that recourse to Article 95 of the Treaty might justify the adoption of ad hoc decisions by the Commission, as had already happened on several occasions whilst the Aid Code was in force. In that connection, the Commission rightly refers to Commission Decision 89/218/EEC of 23 December 1988 [concerning aid that the Italian Government proposes to grant to the public steel sector], and Decision 92/411/ECSC of 31 July 1992 on the granting of aid to steel undertakings by the Danish and Dutch Governments (OJ 1992 L 223, p. 28), which authorised certain State aid outside the aid code in force at the time of their adoption.’