As of: January 2010

State support for non-governmental organisations in the field of environmental and nature protection and EU aid control policy

The EU Commission has decided (PDF-Document, 178 KByte) in the course of its state aid control that nature conservation associations shall be deemed to present "undertakings" pursuant to Article 87 of the EC Treaty.

If this interpretation were correct, in future any state aid or funding for environmental or nature conservation association would have to be notified to the Commission and await the Commission's approval. State aid which has not been approved might have to be recalled in case of complaints by third parties.

Therefore the Federal Republic of Germany has instituted proceedings (PDF-Document, 196 KByte) against the above mentioned decision of the EU Commission before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities due to the classification of nature conservation associations as undertakings.

The Proceedings were published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 7 November 2009. France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland joined the proceedings as intervening parties within the designated deadline.