Brussels, 06/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to extend its formal investigation into aid granted by Greece to Hellenic Shipyards S.A. (HSY), based at Skaramangas near Athens. Initially, the investigation focused on €160 million restructuring aid in 1997 and of €29.5 million closure aid in 2002, as well as guarantees and loans to the shipyard from the state-owned bank ETVA. The probe is also looking into several potential aid measures that Greece did not notify, including several capital injections from 1996 to 2000, guarantees and loans received by HSY from public sources, cross-subsidisation between HSY's military and civil activities, and an indemnifying clause granted by the State to HDW/Ferrostaal against the liability to repay unlawful aid received by HSY. HSY was acquired by a consortium constituted of HDW and Ferrostaal before ThyssenKrupp Werften GmbH took over HDW in January 2005. On Tuesday Neelie Kroes declared, “As regards naval shipbuilding, the EC Treaty ensures that Member States can protect their legitimate national security interests, but this safeguard cannot be used as a pretext for granting illegal state aid to civilian activities”. She also said, “We have to examine such cases with care in order to prevent distortions of competition on markets for civilian products”. Following the opening of the investigation in April 2004, the Commission received several letters from a complainant alleging various further state aid measures in favour of HSY and decided to extend the investigation after assessing the information provided by the Greek authorities.