State aid - Operating loans - Admissibility - Time-limit for bringing an action - Confirmatory act - Action for annulment - Existing aid or new aid - Principle of tempus regit actum - Export aid - Operating aid - Reasonable time-limit.

«(State aid – Operating loans – Admissibility – Time-limit for bringing an action – Confirmatory act – Action for annulment – Existing aid or new aid – Principle of tempus regit actum – Export aid – Operating aid – Reasonable time-limit)» Summary of the Judgment 1.. Actions for annulment – Time-limit – Starting point – Date of publication – Date of becoming aware of the measure – Subsidiary character (Art. 230, fifth para., EC) 2.. Actions for annulment – Actionable measures – Definition – Measures with binding legal effects – Preparatory measures – Excluded (Art. 230 EC) 3.. Actions for annulment – Actionable measures – Measures with binding legal effects – Commission decision concluding the formal review procedure for examining State aid, provided for in Article 88(2) EC – Possibility of challenging the classification as new aid, even where there was no such challenge by an action against the decision to open the formal review procedure (Arts 88(2) EC and 230 EC) 4.. State aid – Prohibition – Derogations – Aids capable of benefiting from the derogation under Article 87(3)(c) EC – Operating aid – Excluded (Art. 87(3)(c) EC) 5.. State aid – Planned aid – Review by the Commission – Compliance with a reasonable time-limit – Principle of good administration (Council Regulation No 659/1999, Art. 7(6)) JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Fifth Chamber, Extended Composition)27 November 2003 (1) ((State aid – Operating loans – Admissibility – Time-limit for bringing an action – Confirmatory act – Action for annulment – Existing aid or new aid – Principle of tempus regit actum – Export aid – Operating aid – Reasonable time-limit)) applicant, v defendant, THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (Fifth Chamber, Extended Composition), having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 15 May 2003, gives the following On those grounds, THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Fifth Chamber, Extended Composition) García-Valdecasas Lindh Cooke Meij Legal H. Jung R. García-Valdecasas Registrar President 1 – Language of the case: Italian.