C 335/48

EN

25.11.2000

Official Journal of the European Communities

By the contested decision that application was rejected on the Pleas in law and main arguments ground that the fourth paragraph of Article 80 of the Staff Regulations was not applicable, since it refers solely to the death of the official’s spouse and the pension scheme of officials does not provide for an orphan’s pension in the case of the death of a cohabitee. In Article 1 of the contested decision the Commission finds that the application of certain tax provisions in the former German Zonenrandförderungsgesetz (Law on the Promotion of Zone Boundary Areas, ZRFG), namely special write-offs and tax-free reserves, taken advantage of in the past by the applicant, is incompatible with the common market. By the present action, the applicant claims that her daughter’s status as an acknowledged child and an orphan must mean that she is entitled to the orphan’s pension on the same conditions as when that pension is awarded to the orphaned children of married parents.

—the Commission did not classify the tax measures taken advantage of by the applicant as general provisions of tax law (to be dealt with under Article 67 CS, if at all) but as aid within the meaning of Article 4(c) CS;

She observes that it follows from Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and from the principle of the unicity of the civil status of persons that the Commission is bound to have regard to all aspects of the child’s personal status, and in particular to recognise the legal effects attaching thereto.

—the Commission failed to apply Article 95 CS to the tax measures at issue — if they were aid — by granting retrospective approval;

—the Commission assessed the making of special write-offs on the acquisition of investment assets for the sectors of the applicant’s business which do not serve the production of ECSC products under Article 4(c) CS and not under the EC Treaty;

—the Commission did not recognise that the making of special write-offs on environment protection investments under Paragraph 3 of the ZRFG up to 31 December 1990 had the same conditions and financial consequences as the making of special write-offs on environment protection investments under Paragraph 7d of the Einkommensteuergesetz (Law on Income Tax), which is a general provision of tax law applicable in the entire territory of Germany;

Action brought on 21 September 2000 by Salzgitter AG against the Commission of the European Communities (Case T-308/00)

—the Commission failed to state, in a form in compliance with the requirements of the Treaty, the reasons for which it does not regard the making of special write-offs on environment protection investments in the period after 1 January 1991 as capable of approval;

(2000/C 335/92)

(Language of the case: German)

—the Commission used as a basis for ascertaining the amount of aid objected to, with respect to interest, not the actual liquidity and interest situation of the undertaking but a rate of interest determined by it in the abstract without taking account of the individual circumstances of the undertaking;

—the Commission, in breach of the general legal principle of legal certainty, also included in the scope of its decision the making of special write-offs which occurred in a period which, applying Article 15 of Council Regulation 1 (EC) No 659/1999 ( ) (ten-year period) by analogy, is no longer subject to recovery.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

—annul Commission Decision C(2000) 1963 fin. of 28 June 2000 on State aid from Germany in favour of Salzgitter AG, Preussag Stahl AG and the subsidiaries of the group in the iron and steel industry, now Salzgitter AG — Stahl und Technologie (SAG);

—order the Commission to pay the costs;

—order the Commission to give the applicant access to all procedural documents under Article 23 of the ECSC Statute of the Court of Justice.