Brussels, 30/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - Having held talks for over two hours on Friday with the French Minister for the Economy and Finance, Thierry Breton, on the subject of the rescue plan for the Société nationale Corse et Méditerranée (SNCM), which provides that the State will hold 25% of the capital of the maritime company, the European Commissioner for Transport, Jacques Barrot, said that the Commission could agree to a final payment of public aid, as long as its objective is to make SNCM viable in the long term. In other words, the French State must cease to support SNCM "with public aid which would never be seen again". The fact that the French State will hold some SNCM capital, alongside the companies Butler (40%) and Connex (30%), should be considered as "residual, limited in time, reduced and give no rights in particular". These criteria will be evaluated by the European Commission as part of its overall assessment of the recovery plan once it is notified by France, but the Commission is not at this stage in a position to take position on the viability of this plan. “It is clear that the greater and longer the State's involvement in this, the higher the guarantee conditions demanded in exchange by the Commission, and a stake of 25% already seems quite considerable”, said the spokesperson to Commissioner Barrot.
In reality, further aid would consist of updating the restructuring plan authorised by the Commission in 2003, whereby SNCM received an initial payment of 66 million EUR, followed by a second installment of 3 million, which was paid in March 2005. Whilst this plan is in place (probably until 2006, according to the spokesperson), it can still be brought up to date, which will mean that the principle of “one time, last time” will not apply.