Brussels, 05/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - Last Wednesday, due to lack of time, the European Commission was not able to adopt a negative decision concerning the tax exemptions granted by France, Italy and the Netherlands to their hauliers during the rise in oil prices last summer and autumn 2000 (see EUROPE of 30 January, p.13). Taking advantage of this contretemps attributed to the visit by Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, the three Member States in question each addressed a letter to the EU Council of Ministers in which they call for application of Article 88§2 of the Treaty.
At the request of a Member State, this article provides for the Council to be able to decide that aid established by the State making the request must be considered compatible with the common market in derogation of Articles 87 and 89 of the Treaty "if exceptional circumstances justify such a decision". The Council has three months in which to rule and must take its decision unanimously. The manoeuvre will have the immediate result of preventing the Commission from acting, in so far as Article 88§2 provides that, when the Commission has opened proceedings against State aid, the request made by the Member State concerned to Council results in suspension of proceedings until the Council has taken its decision. In the case in hand, the approach by Paris, Rome and The Hague will allow the three Member States to gain three months at most, in so far as it is unlikely that the Council will unanimously agree to the request. As Gilles Gantelet, the spokesperson for the Commission Vice-President responsible for energy and transport Loyola de Palacio, stressed on Wednesday, the other Member States found different solutions to face up to the rise in oil prices during the second half of 2000. If the Council fails to give its decision within three months or fails to reach unanimity within its ranks, the Commission may resume the proceedings.
We recall that Ms de Palacio and the majority of the College members consider that the exemptions to taxes on diesel oil are infringement of the Community rules on State aid, but that the decision taken by the Ecofin Council in February 2001 to extend the derogations to the directive on "excise on mineral oils" until the end of this year creates "legitimate confidence" so that recovery of aid may not be called for (see also EUROPE of 2 February, p.9).