24/05/2024 (Agence Europe) – On Friday 24 May, the European Commission announced that it had authorised compensation granted by Belgium to the postal company bpost for the distribution of newspapers and periodicals between January 2023 and the end of June 2024. This compensation may amount to up to €250 million to cover the cost of fulfilling the public service obligation. Previous Commission decisions authorised public service compensation for bpost in 2016 (SA.42366) for the period from 2016 to 2020 and in 2021 (SA.56448) for the period from 2021 to 2022. The Commission found that the Belgian measure complied with the European rules on State aid, in particular Article 106(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU and the framework on Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI). (EV)