Judgment_paragraph 189 · Castelnou Energía, SL v European Commission (T-57/11)

189However, when assessing an aid measure which does not pursue an environmental objective, the Commission is not required to take account of environmental rules in its assessment of the aid and of the aspects which are inextricably linked to it. After all, if aid for the protection of the environment can be declared compatible with the internal market under Article 107(3)(b) or (c) TFEU, aid which has harmful effects on the environment does not, by that fact alone, adversely affect the establishment of the internal market. Although it must be integrated into the definition and implementation of EU policies, particularly those which have the aim of establishing the internal market (Article 11 TFEU; see also judgment of 13 September 2005 in Commission v Council, C‑176/03, ECR, EU:C:2005:542, paragraph 42), protection of the environment does not constitute, per se, one of the components of that internal market, defined as an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured (Article 26(2) TFEU). It is clear from the wording of the above-mentioned case-law, which broadened the scope of the Commission’s review in the context of State aid procedures beyond the verification of compliance with Article 107 TFEU, and in particular with the third paragraph of that article, to include the verification of consistency between State aid rules and specific provisions of EU law, that the courts of the European Union limit to those rules capable of having a negative impact on the internal market the rules other than those relating to State aid to which compliance must be verified. They hold that ‘the Commission is required to make an assessment by reference to the relevant provisions which are not, strictly speaking, covered by the law on aid only where certain aspects of the aid in issue are so closely linked to its object that any failure on their part to comply with those provisions would necessarily affect the compatibility of the aid with the internal market’ (judgment in BUPA and Others v Commission, cited in paragraph 132 above, EU:T:2008:29, paragraph 314).