Brussels, 23/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 23 November, following an in-depth investigation, the European Commission ordered the recovery of illegal aid consisting of short-term credit insurance, including export credit insurance, to certain companies significantly below market price. This scheme distorted competition between the beneficiaries and their Portuguese competitors or exporters elsewhere in the EU. Portugal will need to recover from the beneficiaries the difference between the premium level charged under the scheme and the market price between the beginning of 2009 and the end of 2010. Indeed: - Portugal failed to prove that private insurance cover was unavailable on the market; - the scheme excluded companies that could not obtain base cover from a private insurer; - offering a premium that was below market price went beyond what was necessary to remedy the disturbance in the market and distorted competition between those that obtained cover under the scheme and those that relied only on the market or, even worse, could not obtain it at all; - the measure helped to preserve the market positions of the private credit insurers and, thus, benefitted the credit insurance sector by preventing the substitution of short-term credit insurance by other products offering credit protection such as factoring and documentary credit. (FG/transl.fl)