The administrative court deemed the appeal of the State justified. Steel producer ArcelorMittal's appeal against Marco Schank's decision dating back to June 2013 was rejected.
Marco Schank, who was Minister for Sustainability and Infrastructure at the time, had asked ArcelorMittal to return nearly 81000 quotas of greenhouse gas emissions by the end of July. The appeal against the decision (September 2013) was also rejected.
The administrative tribunal had considered the steel producer's appeal as founded an therefore annulled Marco Schank's decision, as well as the legal confirmation thereof.
The first set of judges believed that ArcelorMittal had been unjustly stripped of the nearly 81000 quotas of greenhouse gas emissions. The State appealed against this verdict in August last year. This story originally began in 2011: at the end of the 2011, ArcelorMittal decided to close its steelwork in Schifflange for an indefinite amount of time. The Luxembourgish authorities, however, had only been notified of said decision several months after the allocation of free greenhouse gas quotas for 2012 had been completed.
Following the notification of cessation of activity, the government requested the refund of the quotas unduly received by ArcelorMittal.
Luxembourgish reglementation states that the authorities may request the total or partial refund of unused quotas when notified of a total or partial discontinuation of a plant (this notification needs to be given immediately).
ArcelorMittal had contested this decision in court, as they considered such a restitution, without any compensation, illegal expropriation. On the international market of greenhouse gas emissions, this surplus of quotas represented a considerable gain for ArcelorMittal.
The constitutional court and the European Court of Justice had given a negative response to these accusations of expropriation.
Following the court ruling, the ministry of the environment, climate and sustainable development formally requested that the company conform to the ruling - and refund the unduly received quotas. Once received, the quotas would be destroyed in order to avoid falsifying the market.
