MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Ireland believes that the European Commission’s decision to refer the country to the European Court of Justice over failure to recover tax benefits from Apple is "extremely disappointing," Ireland’s Department of Finance said Wednesday.
"Ireland has never accepted the Commission’s analysis in the Apple State Aid Decision. However, we have always been clear that the Government is fully committed to ensuring that recovery of the alleged Apple state aid takes place without delay and has committed significant resources to ensuring this is achieved. Ireland fully respects the rule of law in the European Union. That is why it is extremely disappointing that the Commission has taken action at this time against Ireland," the ministry said in a statement.
"Irish officials and experts have been engaged in intensive work to ensure that the State complies with all its recovery obligations as soon as possible, and have been in constant contact with the European Commission and Apple on all aspects of this process for over a year," the statement said, adding that Ireland had made a lot of progress to settle the dispute.
In August 2016, the European Commission published its findings that within the framework of EU legislation the deal between Dublin and the company was illegal as it allowed Apple to pay lower taxes. According to EU legislation, any illegal state aid should be recovered. Dublin failed to meet the deadline scheduled for January 3, 2017.
