Court of Justice (State aid): Advocate General delivers opinion in relation to French aid granted to fish farmers and fisherman

Article summary

On 5 March 2020, Advocate General Pitruzzella delivered his opinion in Case C- 212/19 Compagnie des pêches de Saint-Malo, a national reference from France seeking clarification as to whether, amongst other things, the Commission’s decision of 14/07/2004 (C 2005/39) should be interpreted as declaring that only the reductions in employers’ contributions are incompatible with the common market, on the ground that the reduction in employees’ contributions do not benefit the undertakings and therefore cannot fall within the scope of Article 107 TFEU. The Advocate General proposed that the Court of Justice answer this question in the negative; in other words, the Advocate General interpreted a ‘reduction in social security obligations’ as including both employee and employee contributions. As a significant aside, the Advocate General also opined that the Commission’s 2004 decision was partially invalid, in so far as it classified a reduction in social security contributions...