TOURISM AND STATE AID 133 The Commission followed this logic in a Polish case61 linked to a restoration of a stronghold, which was part of the national cultural heritage. A large part of the aid was linked to the stronghold’s restoration works, which was not managed as an economic activity. Nevertheless, the Commission found that the commercially used facilities were very small and would not attract tourist from other Member States. The Commission’s arguments could be considered as questionable in this respect. The Commission tried to disregard the fact that under Article 107 TFEU the aid has to be liable to affect trade, by saying that the “tourists are not confined to the Stronghold’s limited conference, gastronomy and accommodation facilities as in the vicinity there is a wide choice of alternative conference, gastronomy and accommodation facilities, including some under well-known brands and widely recommended in guidebooks and on the Internet. These Stronghold facilities are therefore not capable of deviating tourist flows from other Member States […] and any possible foreign users of these facilities can be deemed to have made their decision to travel to Poland irrespective of the existence of these facilities”. This does not necessarily mean that the trade is affected, but the potential should be present. It is questionable how much the EU Courts would accept this line of reasoning62. Similarly, partly doubtful arguments were used concerning the Archaeological Museum in Messara, on the island of Crete63. Here, the Commission argued that since the major attraction of the island is Knossoss and that the other sites are only visited by tourists occasionally, the development of the museum in itself would not have an impact on the tourists’ flow; consequently, it was not likely to have an impact on trade between the Member States: “Crete is already a tourist destination with a large number of archaeological sites open to visitors. The main pole of attraction of visitors with regard to the archaeological cultural heritage is Knossos, [...] it results that the new museum in Messara will not constitute either a final destination or a new pole of attraction for tourists. In all likelihood, any visitors to the museum coming from other Member States will have made a decision to visit Crete irrespective of the existence of the Messara museum, which only serves in a complementary manner to provide more effective conservation and presentation of the archaeological monuments of the region. […] Although the museumwill be open to both local and foreign visitors, 61 SA.34891 (2012/N) – Poland State support to Związek Gmin Fortecznych Twierdzy Przemyśl. 62 So far, it seems that the General Court has endorsed this approach in its recent judgment T-728/17 Marinvest d.o.o. and Porting d.o.o. v European Commission (ECLI:EU:T:2019:325). 63 SA.36581 (2013/NN) – Greece Construction of Archeological Museum Messara Crete.
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