Brussels, 04/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 4 October, the European Commission started a public consultation process to determine whether it should continue to apply the current state aid rules for shipbuilding or whether they should be amended or expire, as planned, at the end of 2011. The Commission commented that ship-building is one of the rare industries still subject to special state aid rules that allow aid that is not allowed under rules applying to other industries. The state aid rules for shipbuilding came into force in 2004 and were extended in both 2006 and 2008. They are due to end on 31 December 2011. They set out special measures to cover the special nature of shipbuilding, a global market suffering from cyclical over-capacity. The measures cover innovation, regional aid, closure aid, export subsidies, development aid and employment subsidies. Shipbuilding is also eligible for ordinary state aid and therefore the present consultation exercise will be looking at whether the special rules are still justified or whether the shipbuilding state aid system can be brought into line with the system applying to other industries. (F.G./transl.fl)