Brussels, 15/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has announced that the financial participation of Sogepa (Société wallone de gestion et de participations), amounting to EUR 9 million, in the company Carsid is State aid incompatible with common market rules. European rules stipulate that, when aid is granted, the behaviour of the public authority must be conform to that of a private operator working under normal market conditions. In this affair, the Commission considers that a minority investor like Sogepa would not be ready to provide funding for an operation of this kind, given the risk and the fact that the other partners would be the main beneficiaries. It therefore concluded that Sogepa's participation would be State aid and called on the Walloon Region (Belgium) not to proceed with the payment.