Brussels, 24/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - At the end of a formal enquiry initiated on 6 June, the European Commission has concluded that the aid granted by the Walloon authorities to the textile group Beaulieu is incompatible with European rules governing State aid. The Commission had got wind of possible aid granted to the Flemish group in the framework of the Verlipack affair that it had investigated and for which it had issued a negative decision (see EUROPE of 10 October 2000, p.13 and 8 June 2001, p.12). Having examined the information supplied by the Belgian authorities, the Commission noted that Beaulieu had ended with a debt in 1998 of 113,712,000 Belgian francs (BEF) towards the Walloon Region through the payment in kind of 9,704 shares of the holding company Verlipack II, the value of which was BEF 100 million, but the real value of which had to be considerably lower, given Verlipack's difficult financial situation at the time of the transaction (a few days later, Verlipack asked for the plants of Jumet and Ghlin to be placed into receivership and announced the closure of the activities of the plant in Mol). The Commission considers that this intervention in favour of Beaulieu, in the form of dropping the credit, could not be considered as aid to company rescue and/or restructuring, nor as aid to facilitate the development of certain activities or certain economic regions. It thus calls on the Belgian authorities to take the necessary steps to recover the aid from Beaulieu.