State aid — Italy (Articles 87 to 89 of the EC Treaty) — Commission notice under Article 88(2) of the EC Treaty to other Member States and interested parties on aid notified by Italy (Sicily) in favour of agricultural guarantee consortia (consorzi fidi) — Regional Law No 23/95 and Article 5 of draft Law No 975-955 as far as applicable to the production, processing and marketing of Annex I agricultural products
Date: 2002-01-04
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Italy, State aid, aid to agriculture, control of State aid, regional aid

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Official Journal of the European Communities

4.1.2002

STATE AID (cid:151) ITALY

(Articles 87 to 89 of the EC Treaty)

Commission notice under Article 88(2) of the EC Treaty to other Member States and interested
parties on aid notified by Italy (Sicily) in favour of agricultural guarantee consortia (consorzi fidi)
(cid:151) Regional Law No 23/95 and Article 5 of draft Law No 975-955 as far as applicable to the
production, processing and marketing of Annex I agricultural products

(2002/C 1/04)

By letter of 19 September 2001,
the
Commission informed Italy of its decision to close the Article
88(2) procedure.

reproduced below,

No 518/D/95 fisheries,

No 518/A/95 other sectors.

(cid:145)The Commission wishes to inform Italy that, having examined
the withdrawal of notification supplied by your authorities on
the measure referred to above, pursuant to Article 8(2) of
Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 (1)
it has decided to
close the procedure laid down in Article 88(2) of the EC Treaty.

I

By letter dated 9 March 1995, registered on 14 March 1995 the
Italian Permanent Representation to the European Union
notified the Commission, in accordance with Article 88(3) of
the Treaty, of draft Regional Law (Sicily) No 839 (aid scheme
N 271/95) on aid which the region intended to grant to SMEs
in various sectors (agriculture,
transport,
services) with a view to establishing and
tourism,
operating collective guarantee consortia to facilitate access by
their members to credit and various financial services.

fisheries,

industry,

trade,

By letter of 28 April 1995, registered on 7 June 1995, the same
authorities sent the Commission the text of Regional Law No
23/95 (approving the above draft law, with amendments) and
the text of draft Regional Law No 975-955, Article 5 of which
amended Law No 23/95 (aid scheme N 518/95).

Since the second notification (registered as aid N 518/95)
covered the scope of, and replaced the first notification
(registered as aid N 271/95), the latter was deleted from the
register of notifications.

The Commission decided to scrutinise the texts in question
individually according to the production sector involved. The
aid scheme was, therefore, subdivided as follows:

No 518/B/95 agriculture,

No 518/C/95 transport,

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying
down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC
Treaty (OJ L 83, 27.3.1999 p. 1).

With regard to aid No 518/B/95 (agriculture), following the
request of information by Commission services sent by telex
dated 2 August 1995/VI/029959, and the subsequent reminder
sent by telex dated 8 November 1995/VI/041218,
the
competent authorities sent additional information by letter of
20 November 1995,
registered on 23 November 1995.
Following the request of Commission services by letter dated
15 January 1996, by telex of 31 January 1996 the competent
authorities consented to a prolongation of the deadline for the
examination of the file.

II

By letter dated 16 April 1996 SG(96) D/3905, the Commission
informed Italy that it had decided to initiate the procedure laid
down in Article 88(2) of the EC Treaty in respect of the aids
provided by Regional Law (Sicily) No 23/95 (2) and by Article 5
of draft Law No 975-955 (3) as
the production,
processing and marketing of
agriculture products were
concerned.

far as

services

In particular the aid scheme introduced by the provisions in
question consisted of a new mechanism to support agricultural
enterprises by facilitating their access to credit and various
financial
collective guarantee,
subsidised credit operations, etc.) which had been little used
by small-scale undertakings. The scheme applied to the agri-
cultural sector the model already in place for small businesses
in other production sectors (accepted by the Commission
under the (cid:147)de-minimis(cid:148) rule).

(factoring,

leasing,

(2) Law No 23, 28 March 1995 (cid:151) Rules for collective guarantee
interpreting and
financial consortia between SMEs. Provisions
modifying the provisions of Regional Laws No 36/1991, No
15/1993 and No 25/1993.

(3) The said Article 5 (Integration to the regional

law on guarantee
consortia) provides that: (cid:147)The provisions contained in Article 1
and ff. of the Law approved by the Regional Assembly on 16
March 1995, providing for ’Rules for collective guarantee financial
consortia between SMEs. Provisions interpreting and modifying the
provisions of Regional Laws No 36/1991, No 15/1993 and No
25/1993’ apply also to undertakings which request a financing
for the consolidation of short-term banking debts, for a period
no longer than seven years(cid:148).

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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The purpose was to encourage businesses to form legal entities,
either a cooperative or consortium of cooperatives (called
fidi), which run one or several separate funds to
consorzi
guarantee
certain financial
operations carried out by their members.

cost of)

(and/or

reduce

the

This involved in particular (cid:147)risk coverage funds(cid:148) ((cid:147)fondi rischi(cid:148))
to guarantee borrowing, leasing and factoring operations and a
(cid:147)guarantee fund(cid:148)
to guarantee credit
operations.

((cid:147)monte fideiussioni(cid:148))

The public intervention took the form of aid (usually subsidies)
granted to the guarantee consortia at various moments in time.
These subsidies were aimed at enabling the consortia to offer
their members aid in the form of guarantees for the financial
operations involved and reductions in the financial costs of
these operations.

The aid measures concerned were in particular the following
ones:

(cid:151) public contribution to the guarantee funds and risk funds,

(cid:151) start-up aid for the guarantee consortia,

(cid:151) reduction in factoring and leasing costs,

The Commission had doubts about the compatibility of the
above aid measures with Article 87(3)(c) as, on the basis of
the information available, they did not appear to meet the
requirements established by the State aid rules which were
these types of aid
the examination of
then applied for
measures. The said rules were specified in the Commission
decision to initiate the procedure envisaged by Article 88(2)
of
the Treaty on the aid measures concerned, which was
published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (4).

Following the above Commission decision Italy submitted
comments by letters of 17 March 1997, registered on 26
March 1997. Following the publication of the decision in the
the European Communities (4) no comments
Official
were received from third parties.

Journal of

III

By letter of 25 April 2001, the Italian authorities asked the
withdrawal of
the notification registered under aid C 9/96
(Regional Law 28 March 1995, No 23 (cid:151) Aid to guarantee
consortia in the agricultural sector) and specified that
the
measures concerned had not been implemented (5).

(cid:151) subsidised credit

for management operations and for

consolidation of liabilities,

(cid:151) coverage of losses when guarantees were called in.

In view of the letter from the Italian authorities announcing the
withdrawal of the contested part of the aid measure and in
of Regulation (EC) No
accordance with Article 8(2)
659/1999 (6)
the Commission has decided to close this
procedure.(cid:146)

(4) OJ C 150, 24.5.1996.
(5) In the said letter the competent authorities also specified that
Article 99 of Regional Law No 32/2000 had introduced a new
aid regime for the establishment of guarantee consortia ((cid:147)consorzi
fidi(cid:148)) concerning also the agricultural sector, and that
the said
Regional Law was in the course of notification. Moreover, it must
be noted that Article 13 of Regional Law No 23/95 made the
envisaged financing conditional on the respect of the applicable
EC State aid rules and on the conclusion of
the procedure
envisaged by paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 93 (now Article 88)
of the EC Treaty.

(6) OJ L 83, 27.3.1999, p. 1.