CELEX: 31962D0207P1239
Language: en
Date: 1962-02-16 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision authorizing item 7 of the Appendix to the Goods Tariff of the Italian State Railways

Official Journal of the European Communities                                      11'
 17.5.62                  OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES                                          1239/62
                                             COMMISSION DECISION
                authorizing item 7 of the Appendix to the Goods Tariff of the Italian State Railways
                                           (Only the Italian text is authentic)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                  to 235 018 metric tons and 254 million metric tons/
ECONOMIC COMMUNITY,                                             km, and whereas the FS receive compensation out of
                                                                State funds equal to a substantial proportion of the,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Euro­              loss in revenue resulting from the operation of this
pean Economic Community, and in particular Article              measure :
80 thereof;
Having regard to the Protocol on Italy annexed to                                          II
that Treaty;
                                                                Whereas, without prejudice to the applicability to the
                                                                tariff provision in question of Article 80, the Italian:
Having regard to item 7 of the Appendix to the                  Government has submitted in accordance with that
Goods Tariff of the Italian State Railways (FS) in              Article - in case the Commission should consider it
its current version, as laid down in Decreto di legge
                                                                to be applicable - an application for authorization to
No 9 of 1 January 1940, promulgated as Law No 674
                                                                retain in operation item 7 of the Appendix to the FS;
of 13 May 1940, concerning powers in respect of the             Goods Tariff;
introduction, amendment and discontinuance of goods
rates on the FS, in Law No 634 of 27 July 1957 and
                                                                Whereas the said tariff provision applies to the car-'
in the Minister of Transport Decree No 5272 of 2
                                                                riage of goods within the Community, which includes
May 1958;                                                       a Member State's domestic traffic ; whereas it musf
Having regard to the views expressed by the Italian
                                                                be regarded as a State-imposed measure within the.
Government in the course of the consultations held              meaning of Article 80 ( 1 ) , since it is laid down by
                                                                national laws and regulations ; whereas it constitutes
by the Commission in Brussels on 13 November 1961
in acordance with Article 80 (2) ;
                                                                support for industrial production in southern Italy
                                                                corresponding to the objectively measurable differ­
                                                                ence between rates under the normal tariffs and those
                            I
                                                                under item 7 of the Appendix to the FS Goods
Whereas , item 7 of the Appendix to the Goods Tariff            Tariff; whereas this support is given to specific in­
of the Italian State Railways (FS ), which is designed          dustries, namely undertakings situated in the area to
to promote the industrialization of southern Italy and          which the provision applies ; whereas in consequence
the Italian islands, applies to goods, and in particular        this tariff provision comes within the scope of Ar­
to machinery (whether manufactured in Italy or                  ticle 80 ( 1 );
abroad) , to be used in the construction, development
or modernization of the plant and equipment of in­              Whereas it is not even claimed that the tariff provi­
dustrial undertakings ; whereas such machinery must             sion is a tariff fixed to meet competition within the
be intended for permanent use in these undertakings             meaning of Article 80 (3) ;
and must be necessary to their normal production;
                                                                Whereas it is therefore for the Commission to decide,
Whereas the Annex applies to goods consigned from               in accordance with Article 80 (2) , on the application
abroad or from any station on the Italian railway               submitted by the Italian Government for authoriza­
network to undertakings in southern Italy, the Italian          tion, in so far as this may be required , to retain in
islands or Certain areas of Latium and the Marches ;            operation item 7 of the Appendix to the FS Goods
whereas the provisions in question give, as compared            Tariff;
with the normal tariffs, reductions of between 10 %
and 50 % according to the distance covered in Italy;                                      III
Whereas the volume of goods carried by the FS on                Whereas the Italian Government puts forward the
these terms in the financial year 1960/ 61 amounted             following arguments in support of its application:
 ---pagebreak---    12                                Official Journal of the European Communities
   This tariff provision reflects the change that has           Whereas the purpose of item 7 of the Appendix to
   taken place in Italian regional policy over the years.       the FS Goods Tariff is to promote the industrializa­
  The original scheme was to promote, by means of               tion of certain economically underdeveloped regions
   State aid, an expansion which, through the develop­          of Italy, thus leading to a progressive improvement
  ment of agriculture and improvement of the transport          in production capacity in those regions and to a
  network, would raise the general economy of these             constant raising of the living standard of the popula­
  regions to the level of northern Italy; this scheme has       tion, in particular by the creation of new employ­
  proved inadequate. The realization that if the aims           ment ;
  pursued are to be achieved State intervention is
  equally necessary in the industrial field has led to          Whereas it is thus established that the aforesaid tariff
  the present vast programme for the general industrial­        reductions under item 7 of the FS Goods Tariff are
  ization of southern Italy. Underlying this programme          both useful and necessary; whereas, bearing in mind
  is the conviction that the problem of the Mezzo­              the geographically remote situation of southern Italy,
  giorno depends for its solution not only on aid to            it is reasonable that the aid necessary to that region
  agriculture but also, essentially, on industrial pro­         should cover the carriage of goods and hence item 7
  gress. Only by creating an industry suited to the po­         of the Appendix to the FS Goods Tariff appears to
  tential of southern Italy and making full use of the          be a form of support appropriate to the objectives in
  hitherho unused labour potential, can the real income         view;
  of the population in these areas be effectively raised.
                                                                Whereas item 7 of the Appendix to the FS Goods
  This tariff provision, together with other special            Tariff as now in force has not been shown to affect
  tariffs and a whole series of measures in widely             competition as regards the products concerned in a
  varying spheres, contributes to the aims set out             manner not justified by the needs of the underdevel­
  above; this is not merely an economic task, but also         oped area in question; whereas the tariff provisions
 a social task of the utmost importance, the political         apply equally to products from the other Member
  aspects of which should not be overlooked; to abolish        States, thus enabling all producers within the Euro­
  or amend this provision is not at present possible,          pean Economic Community to contribute without
  since it is indissolubly bound up with the other             discrimination to the capital equipment of industry
 measures in a carefully thought-out system of mu­             in southern Italy; whereas the tariff reductions, being
 tually complementary and interacting aids ; the attain­       scaled according to distance, even operate to the
 ment of these objectives would be jeopardized if the          advantage of non-Italian suppliers;
 Italian Government were prevented from employing
 all means hitehrto at its disposal to resolve the prob- .     Whereas there is no evidence from the examination
 lem in a field where the success of such means can            carried out in accordance with Article 80 (2) that
 be ensured only by their coordinated and simulta­             item 7 of the Appendix to the FS Goods Tariff has
 neous application;                                            any deleterious effects on competition between the
                            IV
                                                               different modes of transport within the meaning of
                                                               that provision;
 Whereas in examing item 7 of the FS Goods Tariff,
 as required by Article 80 (2) , the Commission must           Whereas for the foregoing reasons the continued ap­
 take account both of the considerations expressly set         plication of item 7 of the Appendix to the FS Goods
 out in that provision and also of the general objec­          Tariff may be authorized;
 tives stated in Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty, as inter­
preted in the light of the Preamble thereto, and also,
in this instance, of the provisions of the Protocol on         Whereas, while granting authorization for an indeter­
 Italy; whereas it is clear from these texts that har­        minate period, the Commission retains the power to
monious economic development in the Community                 amend or revoke such authorization if it finds, of its
as a whole entails a reduction both in the disparities        own accord or at the request of a Member State, that
between its various regions and in the relative back­         authorization is no longer justified,
wardness of the less favoured regions, of which
southern Italy is one, and that it is for the Commu­
                                                              HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
nity's institutions to employ the means and proce­
dures at its disposal under the Treaty to facilitate the                              Article 1
Italian Government's implementation of its ten-year
plan for economic expansion directed inter alia at            Application of item 7 of the Appendix to the Goods
that region ; whereas the Commission should have              Tariff of the Italian State Railways, as in force on
these considerations in mind when examining trans­            13 November 1961 , is hereby authorized with effect
port rates and conditions to which Article 80 ( 1 )           from 1 January 1962.
applies, since paragraph 2 of that Article requires it
                                                                                      Article 2
to take account in particular of the requirements of
an appropriate regional economic policy and of the            This Decision may be amended or repealed if the
needs of underdeveloped areas;                                Commisison, acting of its own accord or at the re­
 ---pagebreak---                                                      1
                                Official Journal of the European Communities                  13
quest of a Member State, finds that it is no longer       Done at Brussels, 16 February 1962.
justified.
                                                                          For the Commission
                     Article 3                                                The President
This Decision is addressed to the Republic of Italy.                         W. HALLSTEIN