THE ADMISSIBILITY CLAIM BEFORE THE GENERAL COURT IN THE CONTEXT OF STATE AID LAW Case T-131/21- Região Autónoma da Madeira v Commission

The General Court of the European Union issued its ruling on September 21, 2022, in the case T-95/21 concerning the Madeira Free Zone State aid scheme. In its decision, the Court affirmed that the Europeans Commission's (hereinafter: Commission) conclusion, which stated that the implementation of the Madeira Free Zone State aid scheme (Regime III) did not adhere to the approved conditions, was accurate. The scheme was not implemented according to State aid law, and therefore it must be recovered. The primary objective of the scheme was to enhance the economic development of Madeira through tax incentives. Consequently, the General Court dismissed Portugal's appeal against the Commission's decision (KPMG, Enache, Puscas, 2022).

The authority however, which was involved in granting the State aid, was not only Portugal but also Região Autónoma da Madeira (Autonomous Region of Madeira, Portugal, hereinafter “RAM”) and therefore, it decided to appeal the Commission’s decision, as individual applicant. Same as Portugual, RAM which seeks annulment of Articles 1 and 4 to 6 of Commission Decision (EU) 2022/1414 of 4 December 2020 on the aid scheme SA.21259 (2018/C) (ex 2018/NN) implemented by Portugal in favour of the free zone of Madeira (Zona Franca da Madeira - ZFM) - Scheme III (OJ 2022, L 217, p. 49).

Therefore, on June 12, 2023, the General Court was required to render a judgment on the same subject matter as its decision on September 21, 2022 (Judgment – 21.06.2023 - Região Autónoma da Madeira v Commission, Case T-131/21, ECLI:EU:T:2023:348). The only distinction is that the current applicant is different from the previous case.