Date announced for aggregates levy judgement
THE European Court of First Instance (CFI) is to announce its verdict on the British Aggregates Association’s legal challenge to the aggregates levy in Brussels on Wednesday 13 September 2006.
The judgement follows a hearing at the CFI in Luxembourg last December, at which the BAA appealed on the grounds that the EU Commission’s May 2002 decision to grant the levy state aid approval was unsafe. According to the Association, during this hearing lawyers acting for both the EU Commission and the UK Government struggled to provide any coherent justification for the levy.
Commenting on the announcement of the judgement date, BAA director Robert Durward said: ‘It has been a long wait since we first launched our case in April 2002 at the High Court in London. Although we lost on the day, everything we said at that time has subsequently been borne out. The levy is not only logically indefensible, it is also failing to deliver any tangible environmental benefit.’
