On 9 June 2011, the European Court of Justice proceeded to issue its judgement on the appeal lodged by the Foral Deputations regarding the sentence of the Court of First Instance of 9 September 2009, which found that the so-called Basque “tax holidays” were incompatible with the common market. The Basque tax holiday system was approved by the Historical territories of Bizkaia, Araba-Álava and Gipuzkoa in 1993 and consisted in a ten-year tax exemption for start-ups in the Corporate Income Tax. This sentence implies the end of the Court action questioning the legality of the system and upholds the position of the Commission and the need to recover the aid enjoyed by the companies that benefitted from the system. The Foral Deputations rushed to confirm, yet again, that the ruling has no relevance in practice, as the aids have already been effectively recovered.
