Brussels, 18/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission should be postponing to September the opening of an investigation into the planned re-capitalisation of the Belgian airline company Sabena, in the light of the agreement reached this week between the Belgian Government and the airline company Swissair. According to the agreement, Swissair would free itself of its commitment, made in January of this year, of taking its stake in Sabena from 49.5% to 85%. In return, Sabena will receive a further capital injection of 430 million euro over two years, coming on top of the 230 million euro invested by the two shareholders in February. This capital injection will be in four parts, starting from next October and funded to the tune of 60% by Swissair (258 million euro) and 40% by the Belgian State (172 million euro). The Commission, which intended initiating a procedure from 25 July over the re-capitalisation plan concluded in January, should now examine the two capital injection plans. "We must examine the contents of the plan under all its aspects and see whether it is a question of State aid", commented Gilles Gantelet, spokesman for Commissioner de Palacio, responsible for questions of State aid in the transport sector. Following the Court of Justice's case law, the Commission must check whether the State is behaving like a private investor. "We cannot judge a priori whether that is the case for Swissair and the Belgian State", said Mr. Gantelet. The Commission should especially examine the level of return on the investment made by the State, the threshold for which was set at 30% in the case of Iberia and Alitalia, he recalled.