The Administrative Court of Montenegro has upheld a decision by the Agency for the Protection of Competition (AZK), confirming that €7.2 million granted to the former national airline Montenegro Airlines (MA) in 2019 and 2020 constituted unlawful state aid.
The aid, based on government decisions during Prime Minister Duško Marković’s term, was found to have been granted without prior notification or AZK approval, which violates both national and EU state aid rules. The court rejected the MA bankruptcy administrator’s appeal against the AZK’s decision.
AZK emphasized that Montenegro Airlines had already received state aid in 2012 as part of a restructuring plan and, under the law, a company in financial difficulty may receive such aid only once every ten years. Since no new restructuring plan was in place when the 2019 and 2020 funds were disbursed, the aid was deemed incompatible.
The Ministry of Capital Investments was instructed to prepare a recovery plan, and the state has filed a claim in the bankruptcy proceedings for a total of €93.3 million, including interest. The bankruptcy administrator contested this, prompting a lawsuit from the state.
The court also dismissed the airline’s argument that the aid was justified due to the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that the selective support violated competition rules.
Montenegro Airlines ceased operations on December 26, 2020, and was replaced by a new national airline, To Montenegro, established in early 2021.
