WRITTEN QUESTION E-0073/99

by Umberto Bossi (NI) to the Commission

(27 January 1999)

Subject: Non-repayment to the state of approximately 400 million euros illegally obtained by businesses

In recent years, many Italian companies have obtained state aid which has not been authorised in advance by the Commission, thus contravening Community anti-trust laws.

According to Community sources the Commission, between 1988 and 1991, condemned the fact that the Italian Government had granted nearly 400 million euros in aid to businesses but had not asked for it to be repaid, as required by the relevant Community laws.

According to the Commissioner responsible for competition, this constitutes a very serious infringement by Italy of European anti-trust laws: failure to seek repayment of unauthorised aid is regarded as a scheme to circumvent the restrictions imposed under Community law.

1. Can the Commission say exactly how much state aid was granted by Italy without a prior request for authorisation from the EU authorities?

2. What action does the Commission intend to take in order to secure repayment of the illegally granted state aid?

3. Does the Commission intend to impose penalties on the Italian Government for having infringed Community anti-trust laws?

4. What action does the Commission intend to take in order to force the Italian Government to comply with EU laws relating to state aid?

Answer given by Mr Van Miert on behalf of the Commission

(24 February 1999)

The Commission shares the Honourable Member's concern at the continuing frequency with which aid is granted unnotified and without prior Commission authorisation.

As far as the volume of unnotified aid in Italy is concerned, the Commission is unfortunately unable to give exact figures. Budgetary statistics in the Member States do not draw any distinction between notified and unnotified aid. However, unnotified aid accounted for 10 % of the total number of aid cases registered for Italy in 1996 and 17 % in 1997 (and approximately 22 % in 1998). The total volume of aid granted in Italy was EUR 10 162 million in 1996 and EUR 9 421 million in 1997. The volume of unnotified aid may therefore be estimated at EUR 1 016 million in 1996 and EUR 1 601 million in 1997 (these figures exclude agriculture, transport, fisheries and coal-mining). These estimates are based on the assumption that unnotified aid as a proportion of the total number of aid measures registered is equivalent to unnotified aid as a proportion of the total volume of aid granted. A correction also needs to be made to take account of the fact that the year of registration of an unnotified aid measure is not necessarily the same as the year in which the aid was granted.

When the Commission comes across aid that has been unlawfully granted, it examines whether the aid is compatible with the common market. If the aid is incompatible, the Commission decides that the Member State must recover it from the recipient. A table on the enforcement of Commission decisions ordering the recovery of aid (1982-1997) was published in the 1997 Competition Report(1).

Recovery should not be seen as a penalty, but as a means of restoring the status quo that should have existed if the unlawful and incompatible aid had not been granted. The Commission is careful to ensure that the decision ordering recovery is enforced and, if it is not, can refer the matter to the Court of Justice. If, following a judgment by the Court of Justice finding that the decision has not been enforced, the Member State still fails to comply with the decision, the Commission may also apply Article 171 of the EC Treaty.

(1) SEC(98) 636 final.