Brussels, 14/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 14 July, the European Commission opened a formal investigation procedure to examine state aid to La Poste, Belgium's post office. The Court of First Instance (CFI) annulled the approval of aid to La Poste. The procedure provided all the interested parties the possibility to express their points of view.
The Commission have the go-ahead in 2003 to a capital injection of €300 million by the Belgian state to La Poste. DHL and Deutsche Poste (the German post office) succeed in getting the CFI to annul this approval, arguing that the investigation had not sufficiently examined market conditions (EUROPE 9837). The investigation announced by the Commission will also focus on all the other measures La Poste benefited from since privatisation in 2000 to determine whether all these measures can be considered as compatible with the single market. The state pays €300 a year to La Poste for ensuring a universal postal service. According to the Flemish daily, De Tijd, the Belgian minister for enterprise, Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD) considers this amount excessive.