Brussels, 24/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - Last week, the European Commission brought to an end the in-depth investigation that it had opened against the Danish public broadcaster TV2/DANMARK, and calls on it to reimburse part of the funding received from the public authorities after having identified elements of State aid. The procedure had been opened in January 2003 after a first examination carried out after a complaint filed by a commercial broadcaster operating on the Danish market denouncing TV2's behaviour on the television advertising market and the aid that it had received. With reference to its communication on the rules relating to State aid applying to public broadcasting services, the Commission recalls that it does not prohibit State funding of a public broadcaster as long as the funding is used to fulfil its public service mission. In this respect, the Commission noted that TV2 had received more aid than necessary to fulfil its public mission. The Commission's investigation did not produce evidence that TV2 had chosen not to maximise its advertising revenue. It could therefore have received higher aid than necessary (according to the rules applicable, if a broadcaster does not seek to maximise income from commercial activities, it may benefit from higher public funding). The Commission, moreover, noted that the Danish State, which owns TV2, did not behave like a market investor when it decided to reinvest the annual amounts of excess compensation in TV2. In the light of these conclusions, the Commission considers that an amount of EUR 84.4 million in public financing is not necessary for the accomplishment of TV2's public service mission compared to the amounts spent between 1995 and 2002, and should therefore be reimbursed.