Brussels, 03/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to open an investigation procedure into a subsidy regime granted to the Sardinian hotel sector. According to the Commission's information, the Italian authorities paid subsidies before even having received requests for payment, although the European rules on national regional aid specify that individual aid to hotel investment projects can only be given on request. The European executive feels, therefore, that Italy may have improperly applied the aid regime to its hotel sector authorised in 1998, especially in Sardinia. This regime (authorised under reference N272/98) was applied by the Italian authorities in the form of administrative decisions. The modalities for application allow subsidies to be paid for investment projects on which work had commenced before the date of application for the aid. At least 28 projects benefited from subsidies under this specific procedure, to an estimated total between 8 and 16 million EUR. These procedures were never brought to the Commission's attention, and it now wishes to see whether the payments had the requisite "incentive" effect, i.e. whether they stimulated regional investments that would not otherwise have been carried out.