Brussels, 14/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - According to the preliminary conclusions reached by the expert taken on by the European Commission to enlighten it on the France Telecom dossier, the French operator did receive State aid, aid that could be demonstrated through the combination of several elements, the French daily, Les Echos, reports. This information was then passed on by other economic sources. The independent firm Nera is said to use a combination of several factors as a basis, which allows it to demonstrate that such aid exists. It mainly uses the remarks by Economy Minister Francis Mer (who had said that, if France Telecom had financing problems then the State would take the necessary decisions to overcome these problems) as well as the credit line of EUR 9 billion granted to the operator in 2002. Such conclusions are only preliminary and in no way commit the cabinet Nera, Les Echos stresses. The European Commission, for its part, is extremely cautious and does not comment. Services under Commissioner Monti responsible for this issue and the Nera firm are currently calculating the amount of aid, a task that should last until April or even May.