Brussels, 15/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission decided on Thursday 14 May to refer Poland to the European Court of Justice. Poland, despite the Commission decision of October 2007, see EUROPE 9531), has failed to recover illegal and incompatible state aid from Technologie Buczek (TB) and two of its subsidiaries, Huta Buczek and Buczek Automotive.
On 23 October 2007, the Commission found that the Polish tube producer Technologie Buczek had received illegal and incompatible aid in the form of a public debt waiver and had misused restructuring aid it received in 2003. Two subsidiaries of Technologie Buczek, Huta Buczek Sp. z o.o. and Buczek Automotive Sp. z o.o., benefitted from this illegal aid through significant capital and asset injections from Technologie Buczek before its bankruptcy. The Commission ordered Poland, therefore, to recover the unlawful aid not only from TB, but also from its subsidiaries.
Over a year after the deadline, Poland has not fully recovered the illegal and incompatible aid. According to the Commission decision, the main burden of the recovery should remain with the subsidiaries. To date, however, nothing has been recovered from them and Poland has not informed the Commission of measures that would give full effect to the decision. The Commission concluded, therefore, that the implementation of the Commission's recovery decision by Poland was not satisfactory and decided to refer Poland to Court of Justice. (L.C./transl.rt)