2008/714/EC: Commission Decision of 14 December 2004 amending Commission Decision 2002/610/EC on the aid scheme which France is planning to implement for the start-up of new short sea shipping services (notified under document number C(2004) 4519) (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2004-12-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: France, State aid, aid system, control of State aid, maritime transport, transport lines

5.9.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 238/7

COMMISSION

COMMISSION DECISION

of 14 December 2004

amending Commission Decision 2002/610/EC on the aid scheme which France is planning to
implement for the start-up of new short sea shipping services

(notified under document number C(2004) 4519)

(Only the French text is authentic)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2008/714/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

de transport maritime à courte distance (Aid scheme for
the start-up of new short sea shipping services).

Having regard to the Treaty
and in particular
Community,
Article 88(2) thereof,

establishing the European
subparagraph of
the

first

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

(4)

Whereas:

1. PROCEDURE

1.1. Procedural overview

1.3. Objectives of the amendments

The main objective of the proposed amendments is to
take into account the new legal framework provided by
the Community guidelines as regards aid for the start-up
of short sea shipping services and to make the conditions
imposed by the final decision compatible with these new
Community guidelines on State aid.

(1)

(2)

the

adopted

Commission

investigation
On 30 January 2002, after a formal
procedure,
Decision
2002/610/EC (1) approving, subject to certain conditions
set out below, an aid scheme to promote the start-up of
new short sea shipping services, hereinafter referred to as
the ‘final decision’. The 26th recital of the final decision
states that France accepts procedural conditions which
are in particular binding on projects granting aid to an
intra-Community sea shipping service between a French
port and a port of another Member State and not on
those involving sea shipping services between two French
ports.

the new, more

On 18 November 2004 the French authorities asked the
Commission to amend the final decision to take account
of
the
Community
aid to maritime
transport (2), hereinafter referred to as ‘the Community
guidelines’.

favourable provisions of

guidelines on State

1.2. Title of the measure

(3)

The measure to which the final decision refers is entitled:
régime d’aides en faveur du lancement de nouvelles lignes

(1) OJ L 196, 25.7.2002, p. 31.
(2) OJ C 13, 17.1.2004, p. 3.

(5)

Recital 26 of the final decision states that ‘To ensure
transparency and equal
treatment of operators during
the project selection procedure, the French authorities
have given an undertaking to observe the following
procedures:

(a) a call for expressions of interest will be published
periodically (for example, at the beginning of each
year) in the form of a notice in the Official Journal
of
the European Communities giving details of
the
arrangements for the aid scheme, the procedure to
be followed and the selection criteria;

(b) in the case of projects between a port in France and a
port in another Member State, a declaration of intent
will be published in the Official Journal of the European
Communities giving details of
the
project and of the aid ceiling envisaged. This will
their
invite interested parties
interest
If any interested party
within 15 working days.
opposes the aid scheme, stating the reasons,
the
scheme will have to be notified to the Commission
for prior authorisation.’

the objective of

to express

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Official Journal of the European Union

5.9.2008

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

the procedures
According to the French authorities,
referred to in particular in paragraph (b) of this recital
to take a long time to implement and are
turn out
therefore prejudicial
to the smooth progress of such
projects.

2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE AMENDMENT

The French authorities would like to see the final
decision amended so as to reflect Chapter 10 of the
Community
aid to maritime
transport, which is the chapter dealing with aid to
short sea shipping services.

guidelines on State

3. EVALUATION OF THE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS

3.1. Provisions of the new Community rules

that

The Commission notes first of all
the previous
Community guidelines (1), which were applicable when
the final decision was adopted, laid down no particular
rule on aid for the start-up of short sea shipping services.
Accordingly, it was not illogical for the Commission to
lay down in its final decision particular ad hoc rules for
specific French scheme designed to
approving the
support the start-up of short sea shipping services.

The Commission also notes that in the mean time it has
adopted new Community guidelines and that the latter
now provide a framework for State aid for the start-up of
short sea shipping services modelled on the objectives
pursued by Regulation (EC) No 1382/2003 of
the
the Council of 22 July
European Parliament and of
2003 on the granting of Community financial assistance
to improve the environmental performance of the freight
transport system (Marco Polo Programme) (2), which was
likewise adopted after the final decision.

connecting ports situated in the territory of
Member States,

the

— the service must be of such a kind as to permit
transport
cargo essentially) by road to be
carried out wholly or partly by sea, without
diverting maritime transport
in a way which is
contrary to the common interest,

(of

— the aid must be directed at implementing a detailed
project with a pre-established environmental impact,
concerning a new route or the upgrading of services
on an existing one, associating several shipowners if
necessary, with no more than one project financed
per line and with no renewal, extension or repetition
of the project in question,

— the purpose of the aid must be to cover, either up to
30 % (3) of the operational costs of the service in
question, or
trans-
shipment equipment to supply the planned service,
up to a level of 10 % in such investment,

to finance the purchase of

— the aid to implement a project must be granted on
the basis of transparent criteria applied in a non-
discriminatory way to shipowners established in the
Community. The aid should normally be granted for
a project selected by the authorities of the Member
State through a tender procedure in compliance with
applicable Community rules,

— the service which is the subject of the project must
be of a kind which can be commercially viable after
the period in which it is eligible for public funding,

(10)

Chapter 10 of the new Community guidelines provides
that individual aid for short sea shipping services is to be
considered compatible with the common market if
it
fulfils the following conditions:

— such aid must not be combined with public service

compensation (obligations or contracts).’

‘— the aid must not exceed three years in duration and
its purpose must be to finance a shipping service

(11)

(1) OJ C 205, 5.7.1997, p. 5.
(2) OJ L 196, 2.8.2003, p. 1. This Regulation establishes the Marco Polo
Programme which enables the Commission to grant a financial
contribution from the Community to projects for the start-up of
short sea shipping services to shift part of freight transport from
road to maritime transport. Specifically, Article 9 of the said Regu­
lation provides that ‘Community financial assistance for the actions
defined by the Programme shall not exclude those actions being
granted State aid at national, regional or local
insofar as
such aid is compatible with the State-aid arrangements laid down
in the Treaty and within the limits established for each type of
action in Article 5(2), Article 6(4) and Article 7(3) respectively.’

level,

that

the Commission notes

the new
In particular,
Community guidelines make no distinction as
to
whether the shipping service assisted plies between two
ports of two different Member States or of the same
Member State. The Commission considers that there is
no longer any objective reason for maintaining the
distinction between the two types of
situations, as
explained in recital 26 of the final decision.

(3) For Community financing or eligibility under various aid schemes,
the 30 % ceiling applies to the combined total of
the aid and
financial assistance. It should be noted that the intensity of the aid
is the same as for modal shift actions within the framework of the
Marco Polo programme: see Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No
1382/2003.

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(12) Moreover,

the

Commission

the
Community guidelines do not prevent a Member State
from implementing a scheme providing aid to short sea
shipping services if the individual aid granted under this
scheme meets the abovementioned conditions.

considers

that

bring all their existing schemes into line with the new
Community guidelines.

4. CONCLUSION

(13)

(14)

(15)

3.2. Consequences of applying the final decision
without amendment

The option of not changing the final decision would, on
the one hand, enable France to grant individual aid to
services between French ports under conditions more
favourable than those provided in the new Community
guidelines and, on the other hand, penalise France in
setting up projects for services between a French port
and a port of another Member State through formal
procedures as envisaged in recital 26 of
the final
decision. Not only do these formal procedures lack any
raison d’être in the light of
the new Community
guidelines but they also place France in a position of
inequality in relation to other States which on the basis
of the new Community guidelines wish to establish aid
schemes or grant individual aid on an ad hoc basis to
short sea shipping services with their neighbours.

the Treaty,

In particular,

it must verify that

in the Member States.

In accordance with Article 88(1) of
the
Commission must also keep existing schemes under
the
constant review. To this end,
rules governing State aid apply uniformly to all existing
schemes
the
Commission must propose to the latter any appropriate
measures required by the progressive development or by
the common market when more
the functioning of
restrictive Community rules enter into force. Otherwise,
the Commission would not be able to maintain, pursuant
to one of
final decisions, a
constraint on a scheme of one Member State while the
other Member States
schemes
would not be subject to such a constraint.

its earlier conditional

implementing similar

3.3. Advantage of the change

the

to anticipate

application of

The option of changing the final decision would make it
possible
the new
Community guidelines to the scheme existing in France
for the start-up of short sea shipping services before the
deadline laid down by the Commission in the new
Community guidelines, namely 30 June 2005, so that
through appropriate measures,
Member States

can,

(16)

be

in respect of

In conclusion the Commission considers that Decision
2002/610/EC should
amended. The proposed
amendment will enable France to bring its scheme into
line with the provisions
laid down in the new
shipping
Community guidelines
services between a French port and a port of another
Member State and will also enable projects granting aid
to sea shipping services between two French ports to be
made subject to the conditions laid down in the new
Community guidelines. More generally, this amendment
will mean that France will be implementing its scheme
under conditions identical to those prevailing in all the
other Member States in pursuance of the said guidelines,

sea

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

The following third subparagraph shall be added to Article 1 of
Decision 2002/610/EC:

this

‘France shall make the granting of individual aid within the
framework of
to compliance with
scheme subject
Chapter 10 of the Community guidelines on State aid to
maritime transport (*).
___________
(*) OJ C 13, 17.1.2004, p. 3.’

Article 2

This Decision is addressed to the French Republic.

Done at Brussels, 14 December 2004.

For the Commission

Jacques BARROT
Vice-President