The State notifies the European Commission of the aid projects or aid schemes that the territorial authorities and their groupings wish to implement, subject to their compatibility with the State’s development strategies, as decided by the Interministerial Committee for Territorial Development and Competitiveness.
Any territorial authority or group of territorial authorities that has granted aid to a company is required to recover it without delay if a decision of the European Commission or a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities requires it to do so, either provisionally or definitively. Failing this, after a formal notice has remained without effect for a period of one month from its notification, the territorially competent representative of the State shall proceed to do so automatically by any means.
Territorial authorities and their groupings bear the financial consequences of any penalties imposed on the State as a result of late or incomplete enforcement of recovery decisions. This cost is a compulsory expense within the meaning of article L. 1612-15.
The obligations resulting from the procedure laid down in Article 88-1 of the Treaty establishing the European Community and from the implementation of the exemption regulations adopted pursuant to Article 89 of the said Treaty are binding on local and regional authorities and their groupings when they concern their business aid schemes.