WRITTEN QUESTION E-0499/04 by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Reclaiming subsidies granted for setting up industrial activity.
Date: 2004-02-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: State aid, accession to the European Union, early-stage capital, location of industry, offshoring, redemption

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/607

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(25 March 2004)

1.
The Commission is aware that the exercise of property rights in Spain is subject to certain limits and
conditions and that the Spanish constitution effectively provides in Article 33 that no person may be
deprived of his/her property and rights except by reason of public utility or social interest, on the basis of
a compensation and in accordance with the legislation in force.

However, as the Commission has stated repeatedly, Member States’ land tenure legislation does not
2.
fall within the scope of the EC Treaty, which expressly provides in article 295 that it shall in no way
prejudice the rules in Member States governing the system of property ownership. The conditions
governing such matters as the expropriation of land are, therefore, determined by the Member States and
the Commission is not in a position to comment on them.

3.
Under the terms of the EC Treaty and the Treaty on the European Union, the Community does not
have general competence as regards fundamental rights. The Commission could intervene only in the event
of violation of fundamental rights in the field of application of Community legislation, which is not the
case in the situation described in the written question.

However, if a person considers that his or her fundamental rights have been violated, he/she may apply to
the European Court of Human Rights for redress, once all domestic remedies have been exhausted.

(2004/C 84 E/0682)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0499/04

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(23 February 2004)

Subject: Reclaiming subsidies granted for setting up industrial activity

Amongst all the many consequences which have arisen and will continue to do so from the eastwards
enlargement of the EU, the eastwards relocation of many industries from the oldest Member States is
outstanding.

On occasion, the businesses now relocating had in the past received subsidies from the national or regional
authorities concerned to set up business on their territory.

Does the Commission believe that it is legal and legitimate that companies which are abandoning regions
from which they have received subsidy, in order to relocate in eastern Europe, should return the national
or regional subsidy money when they abandon their subsidised premises?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(22 March 2004)

The matter raised by the Honourable Member is not exclusively linked to the enlargement of the EU.
Already in 1997, when it adopted the guidelines on national regional aid (1), the Commission took into
consideration the necessity of striking a balance between the freedom of enterprises to decide where and
when to invest in a rapidly changing environment and the stimulation of such mobile investment in
assisted areas. Therefore, under point 4.10 and 4.14 of the guidelines on national regional aid, aid for
initial investment and aid for job creation is conditional, through its method of payment or through the
conditions associated with its acquisition, on the maintenance of the investment in question and of the
employment created for a minimum period of five years. This condition is included in all regional aid
schemes approved by the Commission and must be respected.

(1) OJ C 74, 10.3.1998.