EU court annuls Commission request for Greece to recover Olympic aid
BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) – The Court of First Instance (CFI), the European Union (EU)’s second-highest court, has annulled a European Commission request for Greece to recover state aid from Olympic Airways – Services SA.
The court annulled a decision by the Commission that aid granted to Olympic, for losses connected with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, was incompatible with the common market.
Following the terrorist attacks in the United States, the Commission permitted countries to grant aid to airlines for harm caused by the closure of U.S. air space for four days and extra insurance costs.
In 2002, Greece informed the Commission about compensation of over 4 million euros paid to Olympic for a number of cancelled flights, the grounding of a plane, repatriation or ‘ferry’ flight costs on Sept 18, 20 and 16, as well as extra security and personnel costs.
The Commission approved aid of almost 2 million euros for cancelled flights from September 11 to 14 but said the remaining amount of aid granted for flights
on other days and ferry flights was only indirectly caused by the terrorist attacks.
It ordered Greece to recover the aid.
Olympic applied to the CFI for an annulment of the Commission’s decision.
On Wednesday, the court ruled that an incident and the loss caused can be directly connected even if they did not occur at the same time.
An appeal, limited to points of law, may be brought before the EU’s highest court, the Court of Justice, within two months of its notification. nina.chestney@thomsonreuters.com nc/wj