The European Commission opened an in-depth investigation on Friday 28 February to determine whether the public service delegation contracts for maritime services to Corsica awarded in June 2019 comply with EU state aid rules.
Corsica's maritime services from mainland France are provided by links between three mainland ports (Marseille, Toulon and Nice) and five ports on Corsica (Ajaccio, Bastia, Porto-Vecchio, Propriano and Ile-Rousse). The French authorities have awarded the company Corsica Linea three public service delegation contracts relating to services between Marseille and the ports of Ajaccio, Bastia and Île-Rousse for the period from 1 October 2019 to 31 December 2020.
The Commission takes the preliminary view that the three contracts constitute state aid, since they do not at this stage meet any of the cumulative criteria set by the European Court of Justice in its judgement in the Altmark case to exclude the presence of state aid.
Moreover, at this stage, it has not yet ruled out that the public service compensation received by Corsica Linea may give it an undue advantage over its competitors, in breach of EU rules on services of general economic interest (SGEI). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)