Article 92
(1) of the EEC Treaty provides that aid meeting the criteria laid down therein is in principle incompatible with the common market. Notwithstanding, the Treaty provides for certain exceptions to that general rule. The exceptions provided for in Article 92 (2) are not applicable in this case because of the nature of the assistance, which is not directed towards the attainment of the objectives listed therein. For its part, Article 92 (3) lists aid which may be compatible with the common market. Compatibility with the 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), the exceptions provided for in Article 92 (3) must be construed narrowly when any aid scheme or 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 aid recipients towards patterns of behaviour that would serve one of the objectives of the said exceptions. With regard to the exceptions provided for in Article 92 (3) (a) and (c) for aid that promotes or facilitates the development of certain areas, none of the areas where the MFL plants are situated - Capdenac, Albert, Saint-Étienne - is a region characterized by an abnormally low standard of living or serious underemployment within the meaning of Article 92 (3) (a) as established by the Commission (1). Moreover, the advances were not granted under the corresponding regional aid schemes but on the basis of ad hoc decisions of the government. The aid involved does not have the requisite features of aid to facilitate the development of certain economic areas within the meaning of Article 92 (3) (c), inasmuch as the assistance granted was not conditional on investment or job creation as explained in the 1979 Commission communication on the principles of coordination of regional aid schemes (2). As regards the exemptions provided for in Article 92 (3) (b), the aid in question was not intended to give effect to a project of common interest, or to remedy a serious disturbance in the economy of the Member State concerned nor did it have the characteristics of such projects. Moreover, the French authorities have not invoked this derogation.