Brussels, 02/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 1 December, the European Commission formally accepted the commitments proposed by Greece to comply with a Commission decision of 2008 that asked it to stop various guarantees and to recover illegal subsidies granted in favour of the civilian activities of Hellenic Shipyards (HSY) totalling €539 million. Nowadays HSY produces mostly military ships and Greece was concerned that the recovery might endanger those activities which it considers essential for its national interest. Instead Greece proposed to stop the various guarantees granted to HSY and that HSY repays part of the aid through the sale of its non-naval assets. It also proposed to compensate the absence of full recovery through a 15-year ban on the civilian activities of HSY. This, the Commission points out, will “address the repeated distortions of competition in the past in a sector still affected by overcapacity while having no direct consequence on jobs”. (O.L./transl.rt)