Brussels, 19/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 16 January, the Union sociale pour l'habitat welcomed the decision made by the European Commission to approve state aid to overseas social housing organisations. “The European Commission did not oppose the move of state aid to overseas HLM and SEM social housing bodies under the service compensation regimes related to the services of general economic interest”, it writes in a press release. It goes on to explain that until now, the French authorities notified this aid to social housing players in overseas territories under the regional aid scheme, with an upper limit on the intensity of aid to depend on the size of the company. “The recent fall in these rates of aid admissible under the regional aid scheme no longer made it possible to fund this social housing, which has blocked many construction programmes for more than six months”. The Commission opposed a move to the regime of public service compensation for tax support granted to private investors agreeing to participate in the financing of the social housing programmes. “However, the Commission felt that this tax aid complied with the principle of the ban on state aid, notably due to the absence of any impact on trade between the member states”, the Union sociale pour l'habitat goes on to explain. (EL)