Opinion of Mr Advocate General Mancini

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. This case is a direct action brought by the Commission, pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 93 (2) of the EEC Treaty, against the French Republic which is charged with having failed to comply with a Commission decision of 12 January 1983 relating to a system of state aids in favour of textile and clothing undertakings.

2. It seems to me appropriate to emphasize at the outset that the case does not involve the merits of the French measures. The decision of 12 January 1983 by which the Commission decided that they were contrary to Article 92 of the Treaty was not in fact challenged by the State to which it was addressed and therefore became definitive. The Court's only task is, therefore, to ascertain whether France has complied with the decision by adopting within the prescribed period the necessary provisions to that end.

3. I now come to the second requirement, that of ending any aids already agreed and terminating contracts concluded before 31 December 1982. Here too statements made by Counsel for the French Government during the oral procedure are of assistance. At the time when a contract is made, it was said, the undertaking receives an attestation indicating the percentage of social security contributions which it is permitted to withhold on the monthly or quarterly payment dates laid down in the relevant laws. The machinery thereby brought into being is therefore such as to make the execution of the contracts automatic and it is recognized that they have in fact continued to have effect even after notification of the decision, in face of which the defendant government would have had to introduce measures intended to prevent undertakings from continuing to pay contributions at the reduced level. But it is common ground that no such provision was adopted.

4. For the reasons which I have mentioned, my opinion is that the Court should declare that the French Republic has failed to comply with the decision adopted by the Commission on 12 January 1983 on an aid scheme in favour of the textile and clothing industry in France, introduced by Order No 82t204 öf 1 March. 1982, published in the Official Journal of the French Republic of 2 March 1982. The French-: Republic, having failed in its submissions, must further be ordered to pay the costs in pursuance of the first subparagraph of Article 69 (2) of the Rules of Procedure.

1 Translated from ihe kalian.