Article 92
(3) of the EEC Treaty lists aid which may be compatible with the common market. Compatibility with the EEC Treaty must be determined in the context of the Community as a whole and not in that of a single Member State. In order to ensure the proper functioning of the common market, and having regard to the principle embodied in Article 3 (f) of the EEC Treaty, the exceptions provided for in Article 92 (3) must be construed narrowly when any aid scheme or any individual aid award is scrutinized. In particular, they may be invoked only when the Commission is satisfied that, without the aid, market forces alone would be insufficient to guide the recipients towards the patterns of behaviour that would serve one of the said objectives. Applying the exceptions to cases not contributing to such an objective or where aid is not needed to this end would mean conferring advantages on the industries or undertakings of certain Member States, thus strengthening their financial position, adversely affecting trading conditions between Member States and distorting competition without any justification based on grounds of the common interest referred to in Article 92 (3). In view of the foregoing, the aid in question does not qualify for any of the exceptions provided for in Article 92 (3).