2005/36/EC: Commission Decision of 8 September 2004 amending Decision 2004/166/EC on aid which France intends to grant for the restructuring of the Société Nationale Maritime Corse-Méditerranée (SNCM) (notified under document number C(2004) 3359)Text with EEA relevance
Date: 2004-09-08
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Corsica, France, State aid, aid for restructuring, control of State aid, maritime transport, transport company

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COMMISSION

COMMISSION DECISION

of 8 September 2004

amending Decision 2004/166/EC on aid which France intends to grant for the restructuring of the
Société Nationale Maritime Corse-Méditerranée (SNCM)

(notified under document number C(2004) 3359)

(Only the French text is authentic)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2005/36/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty
establishing the European
Community, and in particular the first subparagraph of Article
88(2) thereof,

Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic
Area, and in particular Article 62(1)(a) thereof,

new ships and signing contracts for building, ordering or
chartering new or renovated ships. SNCM could only
operate the 11 ships which it already possessed at the
date of the final decision, namely: the Napoléon Bonaparte,
Danielle Casanova, Île de Beauté, Corse, Liamone, Aliso, Médi-
terranée, Pascal Paoli, Paglia Orba, Monte Cinto and Monte
‘If for
d'Oro. The last paragraph of this Article reads:
reasons beyond its control SNCM has to replace one of
its ships before 31 December 2006, the Commission
may authorise such a replacement on the basis of a
duly reasoned notice served by France’.

Having regard to Commission Decision 2004/166/EC of 9 July
2003 (1), and in particular Article 2 thereof,

(2)

Whereas:

1. PROCEDURE

1.1. Procedural overview

(1)

(SNCM)

On 9 July 2003,
the Commission adopted Decision
2004/166/EC on aid which France intends to grant for
the restructuring of Société Nationale Maritime Corse-
Méditerranée
in
final decision),
which it declared part of
the aid notified to be
compatible with the single market provided that certain
conditions were met. One of these conditions, which is
stated in Article 2 of the final decision, is that until 31
December 2006 SNCM was to refrain from acquiring

(hereinafter

In a letter dated 23 June 2004 (2), the French authorities
requested permission from the Commission to replace
the vessel Aliso with the Asco in the list of ships
included in Article 2 of the final decision. Also, due to
the difficulties encountered by SNCM in selling the Asco,
the French authorities requested permission from the
the Asco,
Commission to sell either
contrary to the provision made in the restructuring
plan (3).

the Aliso or

1.2. Name of the measure

(3)

the measure is

The name of
to the
Commission’s final decision of 9 July 2003 on aid for
the restructuring of SNCM’.

‘Amendments

(2) Registered by
A/26015.

the Commission under

reference TREN(2004)

(1) OJ L 61, 27.2.2004, p. 13.

(3) See recital 97 of the final decision.

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(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

1.3. Beneficiary of the measure

(11)

The beneficiary of the aid for restructuring is SNCM, a
shipping company operating services to Corsica and
northern Africa from the French mainland. The bene-
ficiary of the proposed amendments would therefore be
SNCM.

The Commission considers that replacing one ship with
the other is not intended to increase SNCM’s capacity
and would therefore not affect the scope of the final
decision,
in particular with regard to the condition
limiting the company’s capacity as contained in Article
2 of that decision.

1.4. Objectives of the amendments

(12)

The main objective of the proposed amendments is to
allow SNCM to use the Aliso rather than the Asco by
amending the list of ships it is authorised to use under
Article 2 of the final decision, and to facilitate the sale of
the fourth ship provided for in the final decision by
allowing potential purchasers to choose between the
Aliso and the Asco, which are identical vessels.

2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED
MEASURES

(13)

2.1. The proposal to replace the Aliso with the Asco

In their letter of 23 June 2004, the French authorities
proposed replacing the Aliso with the Asco in the list of
ships that SNCM is authorised to use throughout the
restructuring period. This list
is explicitly included in
the second paragraph of Article 2 of the final decision
of 9 July 2003. The high-speed vessel Asco had not yet
been sold at the date of the French authorities’ request.

the composition of
The Commission also notes that
SNCM’s authorised fleet may only be modified for
reasons beyond SNCM’s control.
In the case at hand,
the
problems
that
encountered by SNCM in selling the Asco are beyond
the company’s control and were not foreseeable at the
time the final decision was adopted.

Commission

considers

the

3.2. Impact of the proposal to allow SNCM to sell
either the Asco or the Aliso

The Commission considers that if SNCM were to find a
buyer for the Aliso instead of the Asco, the sale of the
Aliso would have the same effect on the Company’s
capacity as the sale of the Asco. It also considers that
the French authorities would be in compliance with the
restructuring plan in respect of the undertaking to sell
the four vessels composing SNCM’s operational
fleet,
since the Company has already sold three of the four
ships whose disposal was envisaged in the restructuring
plan.

The reason for the proposed change is that given SNCM’s
difficulties in disposing of the Asco, the French autho-
rities wish to make it possible for the company to
dispose of either of the two ships.

(14)

If SNCM sells
the
the Aliso instead of
Commission considers that the condition regarding the
disposal of the four ships as provided for in the restruc-
turing plan will be deemed to have been fulfilled.

the Asco,

The French authorities have also forwarded a certificate
from the Marseilles port authorities testifying that the
Aliso has been berthed since 2 November 2003.

(15)

2.2. Proposal to allow SNCM to sell either the Asco
or the Aliso

The French authorities have also requested permission for
SNCM to sell either the Asco or the Aliso under the
restructuring plan, depending on the requirements of
the potential buyers.

4. CONCLUSIONS

the Commission considers

To conclude,
the
amendments requested by the French authorities do not
alter the scope of the provisions in the final decision and
that aid to restructuring in the form of recapitalisation,
subject
to strict compliance with the conditions thus
modified, is compatible with the single market.

that

(16)

The Commission invites France:

3. EVALUATION OF THE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS

3.1. Impact of the proposal to replace the Aliso with
the Asco

(10)

The Commission notes that the Asco and the Aliso are
‘sister ships’, i.e. twin vessels built using the same plans
and by the same shipyard. They have exactly the same
size, shape and capacity.

— to notify the Commission as soon as possible, and at
the latest within 15 working days from the date of
receipt of
this decision, which information it
considers to be covered by the obligation of profes-
sional secrecy pursuant to Article 25 of Regulation
(EC) No 659/1999 (1),

(1) OJ L 83, 27.3.1999, p. 1. Regulation as amended by the 2003 Act

of Accession.

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— to inform the beneficiary of the aid of this decision as
soon as possible, concealing, as need be, the infor-
mation it considers to be covered by the obligation of
professional secrecy, communication of which to the
beneficiary of the aid might be detrimental to some
of
the parties concerned, and to indicate in the
version sent, if need be, any other information that
it considers to be covered by the obligation of profes-
sional secrecy and has not concealed,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

In the second paragraph of Article 2 of Decision

1.
2004/166/EC, the word ‘Aliso’ is replaced with ‘Asco’.

Under the last indent in recital 97 of that Decision, the
2.
words ‘high-speed ship Asco’ are replaced with ‘either the high-
speed ship Asco or its sister ship, the high-speed ship Aliso’.

Article 2

This Decision is addressed to the French Republic.

Done at Brussels, 8 September 2004.

For the Commission

Loyola DE PALACIO
Vice-President