The European Commission approved, on Friday 20 March, the public financing of the Fehmarn Belt coast-to-coast infrastructure between Denmark and Germany.
For Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for Competition Policy, this link “will be key to complete the main North-South route connecting Central Europe to the Nordic countries, to the benefit of the European economy”.
The link consists of an underwater tunnel between Rødby on the island of Lolland in Denmark and Puttgarden in Germany. The tunnel will be approximately 19 kilometres long and consist of an electrified, double-track railway and a four-lane motorway.
Based on an intergovernmental agreement between Denmark and Germany, Denmark will be the sole owner and will bear the full risk for the financing of this tunnel as well as for the upgrading of the Danish on-land road and rail connections. Two Danish public undertakings have been entrusted with the planning, construction and operation of the project: A/S Femern Landanlæg for the Danish hinterland connections and Femern A/S for the coast-to-coast infrastructure.
In order to comply with a judgment of the General Court of December 2018, the Commission opened, in June 2019, an in-depth investigation into the support measures granted by Denmark to Femern A/S for the fixed link.
The investigation confirmed that the capital injections, the State guarantees on loans and the State loans granted by Denmark to Femern A/S constitute State aid under EU rules, in view of the economic character of the coast-to-coast infrastructure.
In addition, the Commission concluded that the measures constituted individual aid as opposed to an aid scheme and that they qualified as investment aid.
The Danish authorities had changed the financing structure of the project by limiting the use of State guarantees and State loans to a maximum debt amount of €9,3 billion and to maximum the first 16 years of operations. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)