CELEX: 31973D0395
Language: en
Date: 1973-11-14 00:00:00
Title: 73/395/ECSC: Commission Decision of 14 November 1973 approving additional aid from the Kingdom of Belgium for the benefit of undertakings in the coal industry

17. 12. 73                           Official Journal of the European Communities                             No L 346/ 11
                                                 COMMISSION DECISION
                                                    of 14 November 1973
               approving additional aid from the Kingdom of Belgium ,for the benefit of undertakings
                                                      in the coal industry
                                       (Only the French and Dutch texts are authentic)
                                                         (73/395/ECSC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                     Whereas, in accordance with Article 2 of Decision
COMMUNITIES,                                                        No       3/71/ECSC,     the     Belgian     government
                                                                    communicated to the Commission the additional
                                                                    amounts it intended to pay in respect of 1972 for
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                        the benefit of the coal industry; whereas it is
European Coal and Steel Community, and in                           planned to increase for 1972 the aid intended to
particular Articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 thereof;                          cover operating losses of the mining industry by Bfrs
                                                                    2198 700 000, making an increase of Bfrs 211 per
                                                                    ton of coal extracted compared with the amounts
Having regard to Commission Decision No 3/71/                       already approved;
ECSC (x) of 22 December 1970 on Community rules
for intervention by Member States for the benefit of                Whereas the aforementioned aid is in accordance
the coal industry;                                                  with the criteria laid down in Article 9 of Decision
                                                                    No 3 /71 /ECSC for the admissibility of such state
Having regard to Decision No 70/1/ECSC of 19                        aid;
December 1 969 on coking coal and coke, and in
                                                                    Whereas the reason for such a drastic increase in aid
particular Article 9 (1 ) (2) thereof;
                                                                    was the result of the very unfavourable development
                                                                    of the financial position of the Belgian mining
Having consulted the Council;                                       industry; whereas the Belgian government states that
                                                                    some factors that had served as a basis for the
                                                                    estimates made by it in the autumn of 1971 in
Having considered the following grounds;                            respect of operating losses liable to be incurred by
                                                                     the mining industry have not developed as had
Whereas       the    Commission       of    the    European          been presumed ;
 Communities adopted Decision No 72/373/ECSC (8)
 on     19   October 1972;        whereas this Decision              Whereas at the end of 1971 it was assumed that the
 approved the aid intended by the Belgian                            output per manshift in the Belgian coal industry
 Government to be granted for the benefit of the                     would rise by 8 to 9 % in 1972 in comparison with
 Coal Industry in respect of 1972 to the extent that                 1971, the actual trend to date indicates that an
 in had been included and examined by the                            increase in the output per manshift for 1972 is hardly
  Commission in the 'Memorandum on financial                         to be expected ;
 interventions by Member States for the benefit of
 the Coal Industry 1972' (4);                                        Whereas the basic costs, in particular wages and
                                                                     other labour costs, have risen considerably through
                                                                     the application of the social programmes in the
 Whereas during the preparations for consultations                   mining industry and in line with the rise in the
 with the Council on 6 September 1972 concerning                     consumer price index; whereas initially a rise of
 the memorandum on financial interventions in                        14% in wages was expected, the trend to date
 respect of 1972 by Member States for the benefit of                  indicates a rise of 18% (including a 5-point rise in
 the coal      industry, the representative of the                   consumer price index);
 Commission        was     informed     by     the    Belgian
 government of the intention to effect an increase for               Whereas instead of the estimated stability of revenue
  1972 in the originally planned aid, in order to cover              in the collieries, a decline is discernible in view of
  the remaining operating losses; whereas all other aid              developments in 1972; in the Midi coalfield this will
  originally planned for 1972 and approved by the                    amount to approximately 10 to 15 % and in the
  Commission remains unchanged;                                      Kempen coalfield to approximately 2 to 3 %;
                                                                     whereas the steam-raising coal (lowgrade) of the
  H    OJ No L 3, 5. 1. 1971, p. 7.
                                                                     Midi coalfield must henceforth be sold at prices in
  (2)  OJ No L 2, 6. 1 . 1970, p. 10.                                 line with those of heavy fuel oil, the price of which
  (3)  OJ No L 256, 14. 11. 1972, p. 16 et seq.                       dropped by 15 to 20% in 1972 in comparison with
   (*) Doc. No XVII/52/2/72.                                          1971 ;
 ---pagebreak--- No L 346/ 12                     Official Journal of the European Communities                             17. 12. 73
Whereas the fundamental factor in the decline in           — an adverse effect on coal trade between Belgium
revenue was the devaluation of the US dollar in                 and the other Member States in 1972 is not
December 1971 , a factor which could not be                     discernible;
foreseen in the autumn of 1971 ;
                                                           — industrial consumers receive no indirect aid as a
Whereas the discontinuance of aid payments would                result of artifically low price formation for
result in the immediate closure of all pits and the             Belgian coal;
redundancy of approximately 30 000 employees ;
whereas the Belgian mining industry will able to           Whereas it can be assumed, in view of these findings
cover from its revenue for 1972 only 64% of the            that the increase planned by the Belgian
full cost of production in the case of the Kempen           Government in aid for 1972 in order to cover
coalfield and only 43 °/o in the case of the Midi          operating losses will not impair the proper
coalfield ;                                                 functioning of the common market (points 1 and 2,
                                                            Article 3 ( 1 ) of Decision No 3/71 (ECSC));
Whereas the Commission acknowledges that the
Belgian Government must take account of                     Whereas in accordance with Article 11 (1 ) of
compelling economic and social circumstances of             Decision No 3/71/ECSC the Commission must
regional order in the areas in which the two Belgian        satisfy itself that the approved aid is used for the
coalfields are situated, and that for this reason the       purpose stated in Article 9 of this Decision ; whereas
additional aid applied for in respect of 1972 to            to this end it must be informed in particular of the
cover operating losses is compatible with the               amount and distribution of the relevant payments,
provisions of point 1, Article 9 (1) of Decision No
3 /71 (ECSC), since it is intended to prevent severe        HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
social and economic disturbances in regions where
there are not as yet sufficient opportunities for re­                                 Article 1
employment;
                                                            The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium is
Whereas, furthermore, it must be pointed out that the       hereby empowered to pay in respect of 1972 an
increase in aid to cover operating losses in the            additional     aid  to   the   total  amount   of   Bfrs
mining industry must not exceed the estimated              2 198 700 000 to the Belgian coal mining industry to
operating losses for the mining industry; whereas           cover operating losses.
the increase is thus also in accordance with the
provisions of Article 9 (2) of Decision No 3/71
(ECSC);                                                                               Article 2
Whereas the increase in aid planned by the Belgian          The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium shall
Government for 1972 is not such as to impair the            communicate to the Commission not later than 31
proper functioning of the Common Market,                    December 1973 full particulars of aid granted
although the total amount of aid to be calculated in        pursuant to this Decision, and in particular of the
accordance with Articles 6 to 9 of Decision No 3 /          amount and distribution of the relevant payments.
71 /ECSC now yields a figure of 499 Bfrs/t ( 10 u.a./t)
produced and is thus the highest in comparison with
the other Community coal producers ;                                                  Article 3
Whereas these findings are based on the following           This Decision is addressed to the Kingdom of
results of investigations :                                 Belgium.
— the consistency of the quantitative , estimates           Done at Brussels, 14 November 1973 .
    determined for 1972 by the individual Belgian
    coalfields or undertakings within the framework                                    For the Commission
    of the total overall supply position in respect of                                     The President
    coal and coke is not impaired by the increase in
    aid ;                                                                             Francois-Xavier ORTOLI