Brussels, 22/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has cleared State aid worth EUR 4 billion in total (FF 26 billion) granted by France to its coal industry, in application of ECSC rules on State aid in this sector. Aid was paid between 199è and 2000 in the context of the national coal pact signed in 1994 by Charbonnage de France and the trade union organisations and which provides for the gradual phasing out of coal extraction by 2005. This is aid to the reduction of activity...