Brussels, 21/08/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission extended at the beginning of August the scope of a in-depth investigation, opened in March 2012, concerning a set of aid measures for the racetrack and leisure park of Nürburgring in Germany (see EUROPE 10579).
This extension concerns new measures of public support for companies which operate the racetrack and leisure park of Nürburgring. These measures were decided on 15 May 2012 and partially implemented in order to avoid the immediate insolvency of these companies. They consist of a rescheduling of interest payments on previously awarded loans, a subordination of claims and, possibly, an additional shareholders' loan in order to keep the companies in business for six months. During this period, a restructuring or liquidation plan will be drawn up.
The Commission considers that these additional measures are strongly linked to other aid measures that it has been investigating since March 2012 because of concerns that they may not have been granted on market terms. The Commission is concerned that Nürburgring may already have been a company in difficulty in 2008, when it received the previous aid. Because of its highly distortive effects on competition, rescue or restructuring aid to a company in financial difficulty may be given to a company only once in a period of ten years, the Commission recalls in its press release.
The European Commission is therefore currently examining if these repeated public interventions were in line with EU state aid rules. (OL/transl.fl)