Brussels, 20/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 20 November, the European Commission decided to refer Germany, France and Italy to the European Court of Justice for failure to recover wrongly paid aid from Deutsche Post, ferry company SNCM and the cities of Venice and Chioggia respectively. It requires France to recover other state aid from SNCM and has opened an in-depth investigation into small business financing in the United Kingdom. The Commission decided to give the go-ahead to various state aid schemes in France, Denmark, Belgium, Lithuania and the Netherlands.
Italy is being sent to the European Court of Justice for failure to respect the Court's 2011 ruling to (C-302/09) to recover aid illegally granted from 1995 to 1997 to companies in Venice and Chioggia. The Commission proposes a daily penalty of € 24,578.40 multiplied by the number of days between the first Court ruling and either the full compliance by the member state, or the second Court ruling and a degressive penalty payment of €187,264 for every day from the judgment until implementation. The final amount of the daily penalties will be decided by the Court.
Germany is being sent to the Court of Justice for failure to comply with a Commission decision in 2012 that it must recover illegal state aid from Deutsche Post of between €500 million and €1 billion since 2003 arising from a combination of high regulated prices and pension subsidies granted by Germany. The aid gave Deutsche Post a competitive advantage and the Commission says that Germany has only recovered a portion of it.
France is being sent to the Court of Justice for failure to recover by September 2013 illegal subsidies from Corsican ferry company SNCM for providing “additional” services (although the said services were already provided by a private company) between Marseilles and Corsica during the tourist season (see EUROPE 10839). In the light of two European General Court rulings (T-349/03 and T-595/08, see EUROPE 10686), the Commission says that €220 million of aid paid by France to the ferry company for restructuring and privatisation is illegal and must be recovered. France and the ferry company are requesting annulment of this (see EUROPE 10954). In a separate case, the Commission has given the go-ahead in France for state aid of €15.2 million for Alstom and the RATP railway company for the development of a smart, driver-free underground transport system for big urban areas. It says the project fills a genuine market gap. Public subsidies of €150 million have been given the go-ahead in France for the company Aéroports du Grand Ouest to build a new airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, 20 km from Nantes, to expand the capacity of the current airport, Nantes Atlantique. The project meets public interest requirements and the subsidies are described as necessary and proportionate.
In the United Kingdom, the Commission is investigating whether the Enterprise Capital Funds, which are given public aid to invest in small businesses, comply with the EU state aid rules for capital investment. It says that some of the funds have invested in growing medium-sized companies in regions not eligible for aid designed to promote regional investment. In Denmark, the Commission has given the go-ahead to a public aid scheme for the written media in 2014-2019 to encourage media pluralism. An annual budget of 363.6 million Danish crowns (€52 million) will be used to support the creation and publication in writing and on the internet of high-quality social and political news. The aid is capped at 35% of the editorial costs per press body and the annual amount is capped at €17.5 million. Lithuania has been given the go-ahead to provide €448 million in public aid for the building by AB Klaipédos nafta of a gas terminal at the port of Klaipéda. It says the project will help the country join the EU's gas grid and encourage competition in Lithuania. The aid for maintenance costs will average at €17 million or so a year. The Netherlands has been given the go-ahead for aid of €8.61 million to cover extra costs for the purchase or leasing of electric vehicles by the city of Amsterdam to replace traditional vehicles. The Commission says that the measure, that will run until 2016, will cut CO2 emissions. Belgium has been given the go-ahead to subsidise the building or restoration of football stadia in Flanders and Brussels for first and second division clubs. The €8 million aid will run from 2014 to 2017, giving public subsidies of around 10% of the total investment, with a cap per project of €2.5 million for construction and €750,000 for renovation. The projects will ensure UEFA rules are met and the stadia become multifunctional, thus being of social benefit. (FG/transl.fl)