Article 4
This Decision is addressed to the Federal Republic of Germany. Done at Brussels, 25 July 2001. For the Commission Mario Monti Member of the Commission (1) OJ C 379, 31.12.1999, p. 4. (2) OJ L 83, 27.3.1999, p. 1. (3) State aid N 729/96; Commission letter dated 27.12.1996 (SG (96) D/11702). (4) See footnote 1. (5) According to the case law of the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance of the European Communities, the term "undertaking" in competition law must be understood as designating an economic unit even if that economic unit consists of several natural or legal persons (Case 170/83 Hydrotherm v Compact [1984] ECR 2999 and Case T-234/95 DSG Dradenauer Stahlgesellschaft v Commission [2000] ECR II-2603, at 124). (6) See footnote 3. (7) See footnote 14. (8) State aid N 768/94, "Third Treuhand regime" approved by Commission letter SG(95) D/1062 of 1.2.1995. (9) By the Commission Decision referred to in footnote 3. (10) In its communication dated 15.2.2001, Germany confirms that this would have been legally possible. (11) Case C-342/96 Spain v Commission [1999] ECR I-2459, at 46, and Case C-256/97 DMT [1999] ECR I-3913, at 24. (12) In its communication dated 15.2.2001. (13) In its communication dated 27.1.2000. (14) State aid N 337/97, Commission letter SG(97) D/6876 of 12.8.1997. (15) See Section 7 of the Commission's approval in state aid case N 337/97. (16) OJ C 368, 23.12.1994. These guidelines were revised in 1999 (OJ C 288, 9.10.1999, p. 2). The 1999 version does not apply to the present case because the aid measures were granted prior to its publication (see Section 7 of the 1999 guidelines). (17) See footnote 10 to the 1999 guidelines. (18) The 1999 guidelines are explicitly more flexible as regards the principle that aid should normally be granted only once where the restructuring operations in eastern Germany notified before the end of 2000 are concerned. (19) See Section 3.2.3. of the 1994 guidelines. (20) See Section 3.2.4. of the 1994 guidelines.