Brussels, 02/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission approved a reorganisation of Spanish public military shipyards, formerly owned by IZAR but have recently been taken over by a new public company called Navantia. After rejecting an initial restructuring plan for Izar, the Commission approved the new measures whereby Navantia's civil sales will not exceed 20% of total sales, as a 3-year moving average. Spain invoked Article 296 of the EC Treaty, which allows a Member State to protect the essential interests of its security, with the objective of rescuing the military shipbuilding activities from a foreseen bankruptcy. Navantia's civil activities will not benefit from any state aid, except export credits and development aid in line with the shipbuilding state aid framework and OECD criteria for ten years.
Navantia will act on the basis of market conditions as regards its civil activities. It will therefore keep separate internal accounts for civil and military activities. For each contract for a new civil ship, a cost calculation will be provided to the Commission. The restructuring plan foresees that the workforce of Navantia, will not exceed 5562 persons. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said “This is an important step in the reorganisation of the public Spanish shipbuilding sector. Combined with the foreseen sale of IZAR's civil shipyards and generous social measures, this reorganisation will safeguard Spain's military shipbuilding needs, and eliminate distortions of competition in civil shipbuilding.”