50Of course, the mere fact of being informed of the opening of a formal procedure does not suffice to enable a party to effectively make known its observations. The Court notes that Article 6(1) of Regulation No 659/1999, which is also applicable, by virtue of Article 16 of that regulation, to misused aid, provides that ‘[t]he decision to initiate the formal investigation procedure shall summarise the relevant issues of fact and law, shall include a preliminary assessment of the Commission as to the aid character of the ... measure and shall set out the doubts as to its compatibility with the common market’. It follows that the decision to open the formal investigation procedure, despite the necessarily temporary nature of the assessment it entails, must be sufficiently precise to enable the parties concerned to participate in an effective manner in the formal investigation procedure during which they will have the opportunity to put forward their arguments. To that end, it suffices that the parties concerned may familiarise themselves with the reasoning relied on by the Commission.
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