Brussels, 23/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has given its approval to functioning aid of 47.3 million EUR for the elimination of dangerous waste, granted to the multinational company AVR based in Rotterdam, but it ruled against the granting of a further 2.4 million to compensate for the acquisition of dangerous waste products. Contrary to competition rules, a large proportion of this aid was granted to the beneficiary before it had even been notified, which means that the Netherlands must now recover the sum of money ruled illegal.
AVR, which manages waste services for the city of Rotterdam, entered into a contract in 2002 to run two rotary retort furnaces and a special discharge to eliminate dangerous waste between 2002 and 2006. As, according to the Netherlands, expenditure for the coming years threatened to exceed forecasts, both sides decided to put an end to the use of the furnaces. In 2004, AVR received running aid to the tune of 8.9 million EUR and a payment of 36.5 million to compensate for previous investments and additional costs caused by the site closures. On top of this came a State guarantee, as the State had undertaken to take on 30% of the dismantling and decontamination costs for the sites, which also constitutes aid. The Commission subscribed to the argument forwarded by the Netherlands invoking the compensation measure for a service of general economic interest, as per directive 75/442/EC, which calls upon the Member States to build up the capacity to be able to dispose of their own waste. It feels that the AVR sites were indispensable, given the shortage of installations to allow the Netherlands to meet demand for the destruction of dangerous waste products originating nationally. The Commission takes the view that a proportion of the functioning aid, which was paid to the subsidiary AVR Industrial Waste to cover the costs of acquiring the dangerous waste, was not, on the other hand, justified. "Aid which goes to guarantee sufficient national capacity to handle dangerous waste of Dutch origin is justified, but aid which is designed to encourage the acquisition of this type of waste, particularly if this is of foreign origin, is not", said Neelie Kroes in a press release. The Commissioner for Competition explains that "this type of acquisition could encourage waste to be destroyed rather than recycled and give AVR unfair advantages over its rivals".