Brussels, 19/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 19 December, the European Commission took a number of decisions about state aid in the following member states:
In Italy, it: - ordered the clawback of €360 million worth of state aid granted between 2002 and 2010 by SEA, the state operator of Milan Airport, to its ground-handling company SEA Handling. The Commission says the aid gave SEA Handling an unfair advantage against its competitors. SEA Handling must return the cash, plus interest. - says an illegal tax exemption was granted for the municipal tax on property (ICI) granted to non-profit bodies, including the Catholic Church, for activities that are “not exclusively commercial” (such as social work, healthcare, education and leisure) in their buildings. The Commission does not require the aid to be recovered because Italy showed that it was impossible to decide on exact amounts, i.e. exactly how much of the buildings had been used for non-commercial activities and therefore legally exempt and how much for “not exclusively commercial” for which exemption from ICI amount to illegal state aid. ICI has been replaced by a new tax, IMU, which the Commission authorised as it makes it clear when these categories of activity apply so that legal tax exemptions can be applied; - authorised aid of €2.66 billion in the form of subsidies, guarantees and reduced interest rates to compensate for damage to farming following the earthquakes in Venetia, Lombardy and Emilia Romagna in May 2012, and aid of €100 million for adjusting the port of Augusta in Sicily to intermodal transport.
In Germany, the Commission has authorised: - aid of €1.2 billion to finish Berlin Brandenburg Airport, on the grounds that the work has been carried out under the same conditions as a private investor would apply. The airport would not have been able to pay the increased costs arising from a legal decision about its finance; - €152 million in state aid for measures to reduce noise pollution from goods trains (50% of the cost of equipping existing freight wagons used in Germany with less noisy composite brake blocks).
In the Czech Republic and Hungary, it has authorised the granting, free-of-charge, of greenhouse gas quotas of €1.878 million and €56 million respectively to the two national electricity companies as an incentive to shut existing plant and use sustainable generation (cogeneration, biomass and so on) and sustainable distribution (smart networks).
In Greece and Bulgaria, the Commission has authorised state aid for urban regeneration projects under the EU JESSICA programme of sustainable investment in urban areas. The two countries have budgets of €258 million and €33 million respectively until 31 December 2015, partly financed from the EU Structural Funds and partly from state aid. (FG/transl.fl)