On Monday 8 July, the European Commission confirmed that the public service compensation granted from 1 January 2009 to 31 July 2012 to the Italian company Caremar SpA for the operation of ferry services in Italy complied with European State aid rules. This concludes the Commission's in-depth investigation into the case, which was opened in October 2011 (see EUROPE 10467/29) and concerns a number of Italian aid measures in favour of companies belonging to the former state-owned Tirrenia di Navigazione group and their respective purchasers.
In particular, the Commission found that the compensation of approximately €97 million granted to Caremar under the public service contract concluded for the period between 16 July 2015 and 15 July 2024 complied with EU state aid rules, satisfying the criteria for the exclusion of state aid in the field of compensation granted for the discharge of public service obligations.
The Commission also took the view that certain measures allowing Caremar to access certain funds for liquidity purposes and certain tax exemptions granted to Caremar did not constitute State aid.
Link to the case in the Commission's register: https://aeur.eu/f/cyy (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)