Brussels, 31/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - After a detailed investigation, the European Commission has authorised Germany to pay EUR 647 million in aid for the construction of the Leuna 2002 refinery in Saxony-Anhalt. The beneficiary of the aid is Mitteldeutsche Erdöl Raffinerie GmbH (MIDER), which owns Leuna, itself a subsidiary of TotalFina Elf.
This decision comes within the context of a more complex procedure. In 1993 and 1994, the Commission had authorised the payment of a series of aid packages with a view to building a new refinery on the old Leuna chemical site. Most of these measures had been granted on the basis of several regional programmes authorised by the Commission. The construction of the refinery had been entrusted to the Thyssen-Lurgi-Technip consortium under a "lump-sum turnkey contract" concluded with MIDER, for which a fixed price was agreed. In 1996, the Commission had been informed by third parties that the cost announced by EIF, which later merged with TotalFina, was considerably more than the normal cost of building a plant of comparable size, thus giving rise to the granting of aid above the amount needed for achieving the project. In order to verify the truth of such information, the Commission opened, in July 1997, a formal investigation procedure on the case. The Commission was not able to establish that the cost had been over-estimated and therefore confirmed the costs admissible for the whole of the investment project, i.e. EUR 2403.1 million.