Brussels, 02/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission decided to open investigation procedure regarding payments made by France to the haulage company "Sernam", a subsidiary of SNCF, after learning that the conditions for granting the aid and the amount of aid, as approved in May 2001, had been substantially modified. These changes are also the subject of a collective complaint filed with the Commission.
Sernam, an SNCF haulage subsidiary, was to be restructured, mainly through integration into the Geodis company that was to become a 60% owner. The majority stake held by a private actor in the restructuring of Sernam and the transfer of know-how arising from this combined with a realistic restructuring plan had meant that the Commission approved aid to the restructuring of Sernam on 23 May 2001.
Since then, the context has changed considerably. Geodis, which itself has been experiencing a difficult phase, will now only be acquiring 15% of Sernam and will only increase its stake to 51% subject to very stringent conditions. In January 2003, France announced that the company Cogip, itself partially held by Geodis, is also to acquire 15% of Sernam capital and could take on 49% of the latter if extremely severe conditions are met. These changes are mainly due to the economic difficulties being encountered by Geodis, which will apparently not allow it to take over the Sernam share initially planned or to provide its share of the funds needed for restructuring. Furthermore, the amount of aid approved by the Commission in 2001 will be exceeded by at least EUR 41 million and restructuring should last one more year, without the company providing adequate match financing.
Given the doubts raised by these new elements regarding respect of the Commission's decision of 23.5.2001 and regarding restructuring under way, the Commission has decided to open the formal inquiry procedure and invites France as well as the parties interested to submit their observations.