Brussels, 16/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - Following the Commission's decision that makes it compulsory for the Crédit Mutuel to pay unwarranted aid back to the French State (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.13), the cooperative bank has announced that it plans to appeal, with the French State, before the European Court of Justice, in Luxembourg. The Crédit Mutuel considers the procedure "unfounded on the legal and economic level", and considers it has "always complied with the law when applying the regulations as defined by the French State". It considers, moreover, that it has fulfilled the general interest missions that the public authorities assigned to it, and considers that, as it existed before the liberalisation of European capital movements, the "livret bleu" savings account "cannot be reasonably considered as carrying out exchange between the Member States". The Crédit Mutuel also challenges the conclusions of the Commission inquiry whereby the group benefited from over-compensation assimilated to State aid: "the group did not receive any compensation over and above the cost of collecting and managing the "livret bleu", as can be seen in the results of the independent audit carried out by an international firm according to the professional standards and custom". Although welcoming the fact that the Commission's decision does not bring into question the very existence of the savings account, the French State, speaking through its Finance Minister, decided to support the Crédit Mutuel in its decision to appeal: "The State will join in the fight with a view to safeguarding the essential achievements of our regulated savings system, which is to the advantage of all French citizens", he said in essence.