86The Commission contends, regarding the fourth ground of appeal, that the general scheme of the State aid procedure, as laid down by Article 88(3) EC, means that aid must be notified by the Member States and that this was required even before Regulation No 659/1999 intervened. As the decisions on the matter are addressed to the Member States, they alone must notify the Commission (see, to that effect, Case C-367/95 P Commission v Sytraval and Brink's France [1998] ECR I-1719, paragraph 45, and Case C-99/98 Austria v Commission [2001] ECR I-1101, paragraphs 32 and 84). It would be anomalous if notification by a third party could secure a Member State against a decision ordering the recovery of aid. If the Court were to take the view that notification must be effected in any case by the Member States, the fourth ground of appeal would be unfounded and the other grounds relating to the notification of the aid in dispute would be of no purpose.
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