CELEX: 31973D0396
Language: en
Date: 1973-11-14 00:00:00
Title: 73/396/ECSC: Commission Decision of 14 November 1973 approving additional aid from the Republic of France for the benefit of the coal industry in 1972

17. 12. 73                            Official Journal of the European Communities                             No L 346/ 13
                                                 COMMISSION DECISION
                                                   of 14 November 1973
               approving additional aid from the Republic of France for die benefit of the coal
                                                       industry in 1972
                                               (Only the French text is authentic)
                                                       (73 /396/ECSC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                     the benefit of the coal industry; whereas it is
COMMUNITIES,                                                       planned to grant additional aid to the amount of FF
                                                                    150 000 000 to the French coal industry for 1972,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                       which in the opinion of the French Government
European Coal and Steel Community, and in                          guarantees that the economic reorganization of the
particular Articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 thereof;                         coalfields will proceed on appropriate lines ; whereas
                                                                   the total amount consists of the aids granted to the
Having regard to Commission Decision No 3/71 /                     individual      coalfields : Nord/Pas-de-Calais  —   FF
ECSC (*) of 22 December 1970 on Community rules                    25 000 000 ; Lorraine — FF 23 000 000 ; and Centre­
for intervention by Member States for the benefit of               Midi — FF 102 000 000 ; whereas in comparison with
the coal industry;                                                 the aids already approved for 1972, the increase
                                                                   amounts to approximately 8 % in the case of the
Having regard to Decision No 70/1/ECSC (2) of 19                   Nord/Pas-de-Calais coalfield and 15 °/o in the case
December 1969 on coking coal and coke, and in                      of the Lorraine coalfield; whereas in the case of the
particular Article 9 (1 ) thereof;                                 Centre-Midi       coalfield  there  is an   considerable
                                                                   increase of almost 65 %;
Having consulted the Council ;
                                                                    Whereas the aforementioned aid is in accordance
Having considered the following grounds;                           with the criteria laid down in Article 9 of Decision
                                                                   No 3/71 /ECSC for the admissibility of such state
Whereas the Commission of the European                             aid;
Communities adopted Decision No 72/374/ECSC on
19 October 1972 (3); whereas this Decision approved                Whereas the reason for the increase in aid is that the
the aid intended by the French Government to be                    estimate of the trend of costs and revenue proved
granted for the benefit of the coal industry in                    too optimistic;
 respect of 1972 to the extent that it had been
included and examined by the Commission in the                     Whereas the decline in fuel oil prices in 1972
'Memorandum on financial interventions by                          resulted in a loss in revenue in the Nord/Pas-de­
Member States for the benefit of the coal industry                 Calais and Centre-Midi coalfields, since the main
1972' (4);                                                          products of these coalfields are steam-raising coal
                                                                   and domestic coal ; whereas in the Lorraine
Whereas during the preparations for consultations                  coalfield, the chief product of which is coking coal,
with the Council on 6 September 1972 concerning                    the revenue of the collieries in 1972 was more or
the Memorandum on financial interventions by                        less stable in comparison with 1971 . Production
Member States for the benefit of the coal industry,                costs, on the other hand, rose more rapidly in 1972
the representative of the Commission was informed                  than had been anticipated by the French
by the French Government of the intention to effect                Government, this being attributed in particular to
an increase for 1972 in the originally planned aid, in             the fact that production dropped more rapidly (by
order to cover the remaining operating losses ;                    approximately 2 000 000 metric tons) than had been
whereas all other aid originally planned for 1972                   allowed for in production planning;
and approved by the Commission remains
unchanged ;                                                        Whereas in spite of the increase requested, the
                                                                    aggregate of the aids for 1972 is less than that for
Whereas in accordance with Article 2 of Decision                    1971 ; whereas the Commission consequently
                                                                    believes that the attention of the French Government
No       3/71 /ECSC,       the      French      Government
communicated to the Commission the additional                       should be directed to developments of the Centre­
amounts it intended to pay in respect of 1972 for                  Midi coalfield, in respect of which the aids granted
                                                                   in order to cover losses in 1972 will amount to the
 0)  OJ No L 3, 5. 1. 1971 , p. 7.                                  relatively high figure of almost 42 FF/t; whereas in
 m   OJ No L 2, 6. 1 . 1970, p. 10.                                view the relatively small increase in aids there seems
 (») OJ No L 256, 14. 11 . 1972, p. 19 et seq.                     to be no need for a fresh scrutiny of the relevant
(4)  Doc. No XVII/52/2/72.                                          provisions of Commission Decision No 72/374/
 ---pagebreak--- No L 346/14                            Official Journal of the European Communities                              17. 12. 73
ECSC (*) of 19 October 1972 (prevention of severe                Whereas it can therefore be established that the
economic and social disturbances in regions where                increase in French aid is not such as to impair the
there are still insufficient opportunities for re­               proper functioning of the common market referred
employment); whereas the French Government has                   to the Article 3 ( 1 ) of Decision No 3/71/ECSC;
not communicated any new aspects to the
Commission;                                                      Whereas     in accordance with Article 11 (1)           of
                                                                 Decision    No    3/71 /ECSC the      Commission must
Whereas the requested increase in aids in respect of             satisfy itself that the approved aid is used for the
1972 to cover operating losses is therefore in                   purpose stated in Article 9 of this Decision; whereas
accordance with the provisions of point 1 ,                      to this end it must be informed in particular of the
Article 9 ( 1 ) of Decision No 3/71 /ECSC;                       amount and distribution of the relevant payments,
Whereas, furthermore, it must be pointed out that                HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
the increase in aid to cover operating losses in the
mining industry must not exceed the estimated                                               Article 1
operating losses ; whereas the increase is thus also in
accordance with the provisions of Article 9 (2) of                The Government of the Republic of France is
Decision No 3 /71 /ECSC ;
                                                                 hereby empowered to grant in respect of 1972
                                                                  additional aid to the total amount of FF 150 000 000
Whereas the increase in aid planned by the French                to the coal mining industry to cover operating
Government for 1972 is not such as to impair the                 losses, and to distribute this amount among the
proper functioning of the common market, although                individual coalfields as follows :
the total amount of aid to be calculated in
accordance with Articles 6 to 9 of Decision No 3/                 Nord/Pas-de-Calais                       FF   25 000 000
71 /ECSC yields a figure of FF 34-24 (6*16 u.a.) per
metric ton produced and is thus relatively high in                Lorraine                                 FF   23 000 000
comparison with the aids for the German coal                      Centre-Midi                              FF 102 000 000
industry;
Whereas these findings are based on the following
 results of investigations :                                                                Article 2
— an adverse effect on coal trade between France                  The Government of the Republic of France shall
      and the other Member States as a result of                  communicate to the Commission not later than
      increase in aid to cover operating losses in the            31 December    1973 full particulars of aids granted
      coal mining industry is not discernible;                    pursuant to    this Decision, and in particular the
                                                                  amount and     distribution of the relevant payments,
— industrial consumers of coking coal and steam­                  as well as      of the progress of the economic
      raising coal receive no indirect aid as a result of         reorganization of the coalfields.
      the formation of artificially low prices for
      French coal . The revenue from the Nord/Pas-de­
      Calais coalfield and the Centre-Midi coalfield, of
      which the main products are steam-raising coal                                        Article 3
      and domestic coal shows a drop of 6 to 7%> for
      1972 in comparison with 1971, which is in line              This Decision is addressed to the Republic of
       with the downward tendency in fuel oil prices ;            France.
 Whereas in respect of the other criteria for the                 Done at Brussels, 14 November 1973 .
 proper functioning of the common market, the
 provisions of Commission Decision No 72/374/                                                 For the Commission
  ECSC (2) of 19 October 1972 do not give rise to any                                             The President
 new aspects through the increasing of French aid to
 cover operating losses in the mining industry;                                             Francois-Xavier ORTOLI
  0 ) OJ No L 256, 14. 11 . 1972, p. 20.
  (2> OJ No L 256, 14. 11 . 1972, p . 20.