Brussels, 29/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission is expected to adopt a negative decision concerning tax exemptions granted by France, Italy and the Netherlands to their road hauliers. Exemptions were granted during the rise in oil prices during summer and autumn 2000. The Commission, however, does not request recovery of aid.
Services under Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio consider that exemptions to taxation on diesel fuel, granted to hauliers, is infringement of the European rules on State aid but that the decision to extend exemptions to the Excise Directive until 2003, as adopted by the Ecofin Council in February 2001, has created "legitimate confidence" that does not allow requests for recovery of aid. Following the Commission, the Council had acknowledged that its decision did not prejudge the results of the Commission's analysis from the angle of State aid.
If it is adopted by all the College, the decision proposed by Commissioner de Palacio would put an end to exemptions from 2002. Loyola de Palacio, moreover, proposes that only aid from France for occasional passenger transport will be recovered. Several Commissioners have expressed doubt about this proposal, some because they hoped to go further by calling for aid to be recovered on behalf of legal coherence of the Commission's decision, and others because they consider (like Taxation Commissioner Frits Bolkestein or the French Commissioners) that it is a question of general measures and not of State aid.