Link: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2022-11/cp220192en.pdf

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PRESS RELEASE No 192/22

Luxembourg, 30 November 2022

Judgment of the General Court in Case T-101/18 | Austria v Commission

Construction of new nuclear reactors: the General Court dismisses the action brought by Austria to contest Hungarian investment aid approved by the Commission By decision of 6 March 2017 1 (‘the contested decision’), the European Commission approved investment aid, notified by Hungary, for the State-owned undertaking MVM Paks II Nuclear Power Plant Development Private Company Limited by Shares (‘the Paks II company’). The aid concerns the operation of two nuclear reactors under construction at the Paks nuclear power station site, which are gradually to replace the four nuclear reactors already in operation on that site.

That investment aid (‘the aid at issue’), which consists, in essence, of the provision free of charge of the new nuclear reactors to the Paks II company for the purpose of their operation, is in large part financed by a loan in the form of a revolving credit facility of €10 billion granted by Russia to Hungary in the framework of an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. In accordance with that agreement, the task of constructing the new reactors was entrusted, by means of a direct award, to the company Nizhny Novgorod Engineering Company Atomenergoproekt (‘JSC NIAEP’).

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