Brussels, 04/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Commission opened a formal investigation procedure into three State aid packages provided for by Italian legislation. In all three cases, the Commission expresses doubts as to the compatibility of this aid with Community legislation on State aid. The three aid packages targeted are as follows:
Additional financing: the first measures relate to additional financing of 119 million euro which comes on top of an already exceptional aid package of 100 million euro that the Council approved in 1997 despite doubts expressed at the time by the Commission. The measures in question provided for the State taking responsibility for paying sums due by members of agricultural co-operatives which had personally stood surety in favour of the co-operatives, in case of insolvency of the latter.
Company rescues: the second measure provides for a scheme for rescuing and restructuring companies in difficulty. This scheme "does not contain the information necessary to assess its compatibility with the provisions applicable to such aid", says the Commission;
Promotion, research and development: the third measure concerns aid in favour of promotional as well as research and development (R&D) measures which will be partially financed through a parafiscal levy imposed both on national and imported products. The Commission has followed its established practice in the field as well as the Court case law whereby aid financed from parafiscal charges which also apply to imported products are in principle incompatible with the common market in that the imported products cannot benefit from the aid scheme in the same way as domestic ones. The Commission does, however, consider that "some of the R&D measures envisaged do not constitute State aid in that they will be conducted by public institutions in the public interest".
Italy and all interested parties have one month in which to submit their comments. The comments of the parties will then be forwarded to Italy, which will then have one month in which to respond to them. As far as possible, the Commission will try to adopt a decision within eighteen months following the opening of the procedure. No aid may be paid until the Commission has completed its investigation. Should the Commission reach the final conclusion that the aid may not be authorised, any sums received under the schemes will have to be refunded, with interest.