Brussels, 11/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - As we announced (see EUROPE of 11 April, p.10) the European Commission decided, on Wednesday, to open a formal investigation procedure against the support measure to road hauliers, in the form of excise duty reductions on diesel, adopted by France, Italy and the Netherlands. This is a case of verifying whether these measures do not lead to discriminations nor distortions to competition. The three governments have one month to present their observations.
The Commission intends adopting a final decision on these cases as quickly as possible. In the meantime it continues its investigations into other Member States that had, during the crisis last autumn provoked by the increase in fuel prices, adopted other kinds of measures that could be susceptible of producing distortions to competition.