CELEX: 11985I/PRO/20
Language: en
Date: 1985-06-12 00:00:00
Title: DOCUMENTS CONCERNING THE ACCESSION OF THE KINGDOM OF SPAIN AND THE PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC TO THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, ACT CONCERNING THE CONDITIONS OF ACCESSION OF THE KINGDOM OF SPAIN AND THE PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC AND THE ADJUSTMENTS TO THE TREATIES, PROTOCOL 20 ON THE RESTRUCTURING OF THE PORTUGUESE IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY

15 . 11.85                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                        459
 However, this provision shall not apply if infringement            application, cause a detailed description to be made, at
 proceedings are brought against the holder of another              the premises of the alleged infringer, by a bailiff
 process patent for the manufacture of a product identi­            assisted by experts, of the processes in question, in
 cal to that obtained as the result of the patented pro­            particular by photocopying technical documents, with
 cess of the plaintiff, if that other patent was issued             or without actual distraint. This Court order may order
 before the date of accession .                                     the payment of a security, intended to grant damages to
                                                                    the alleged infringer in case of injury caused by the
 In cases where shifting the burden of proof does not               'distraint-description'.
apply, the Portuguese Republic shall continue to
require the patent holder to adduce proof of infringe­              3 . The Portuguese Republic shall accede on 1 January
ment .                                                               1992 to the Munich Convention of 5 October 1973 on
                                                                    the European patent and to the Luxembourg Conven­
 In all cases where shifting the burden of proof does not           tion of 15 December 1975 on the Community patent.
apply on 1 January 1987, including patents filed before
the date of accession , the Portuguese Republic shall               The Portuguese Republic may invoke Article 95 (4) of
pass new domestic legislation, with effect from that                the Luxembourg Convention on the Community patent
date introducing a judicial procedure known as 'dis­                with a view to introducing the purely technical adapta­
traint-description'.                                                tions made necessary by its accession to the said Con­
                                                                    vention, it being, however, understood that such an
' Distraint-description' means, a procedure by which                invocation can in no way delay the accession of the
any person entitled to bring an action for infringement             Portuguese Republic to the Luxembourg Convention
may, after obtaining a Court order, granted on his                  beyond the abovementioned date .
                                                           Protocol 20
                                 on the restructuring of the Portuguese iron and steel industry
1 . From the date of accession, no aid may be given to              sion by the Portuguese Government. The said Govern­
the Portuguese iron and steel industry unless approved              ment shall not implement its projects without authori­
by the Commission within the framework of a restruc­                zation from the Commission .
turing plan . The restructuring plan for the Portuguese
iron and steel industry should be compatible with the               The Commission shall assess those projects on the
last general steel objectives adopted before the date of            basis of the criteria and in accordance with the proce­
accession .                                                         dures defined in the Annex to this Protocol .
2 . From the date of accession , the Commission and                 5 . During the period mentioned in Article 212 of the
the Portuguese Government will assess jointly the plan              Act of Accession, Portuguese deliveries of ECSC iron
approved by the Portuguese Government, which is to                  and steel products to the remainder of the Community
be officially forwarded to the Commission by 1 Sep­                 should fulfil the following conditions :
tember 1985 , and the viability of the iron and steel               (a) The level of Portuguese deliveries to the remainder
undertaking to which the plan relates.                                   of the Community as at present constituted during
                                                                         the first year following accession shall be that fixed
 3 . Should the viability of that undertaking not be                     by the Commission after agreement of the
 satisfactorily guaranteed at the end of a maximum of                    Portuguese Government and consultation of the
 five years after accession, the Commission, after receiv­               Council during the year preceding accession .
 ing the opinion of the Portuguese Government, shall                     Whatever the situation, this level may in no cir­
 propose, at the end of the first year after accession, to               cumstances be less than 80 000 tonnes. If no agree­
 make an addition to the plan, thereby enabling that                     ment has been reached between the Commission
 undertaking to reach a viable state by the end of the                   and the Portuguese Government at the latest one
 plan.                                                                   month before the date of accession, the quantities
                                                                         which the Portuguese iron and steel industry may
4. Any aid to the Portuguese iron and steel industry                     deliver during the first three months from the date
                                                                         of accession shall not exceed 20 000 tonnes .
 forming part of the addition to the plan provided for in
 point 3 shall be notified in advance, and not later than                Should no agreement have been reached on this
 the end of the first year after accession, to the Commis­               point by the date of accession, the level of deliveries
 ---pagebreak--- 460                                       Official Journal of the European Communities                                           15. 11.85
     shall be fixed, not later than two months after the                         — trends in deliveries of ECSC iron and steel
     date of accession, by the Commission with the                                     products to Portugal from the Community as at
     assent of the Council .                                                           present constituted.
     These deliveries will in any event have to be liber­                  (b) The Portuguese Government hereby undertakes to
     alized once the transitional arrangements have                              implement upon accession, under its responsibility
     expired and in order to bring about a harmonious                            and in agreement with the Commission, a mechan­
     transition, their level may be increased before the                         ism for monitoring deliveries to the remainder of
     end of the said arrangements, the level of the first                        the Community market calculated to ensure strict
     year being considered as a base line .                                      observance of the quantitative undertakings agreed
                                                                                 or established pursuant to point (a).
     Any increase in the level will be made on the basis
     of:                                                                         This mechanism must be compatible with any
                                                                                 other measure of market supervision which may be
     — the state of progression of the Portuguese res­                           adopted during the years following the date of the
          tructuring plan, taking into account significant                       accession , and must not jeopardize the possibility
          factors in re-establishing the viability of the                        of delivering the agreed quantities.
          undertakings, and necessary measures to attain
          such viability,                                                        The Commission will regularly inform the Council
                                                                                 of the reliability and the effectiveness of this
     — iron and steel measures which may be in force                             mechanism . Should it prove to be unsatisfactory,
          in the Community after accession so that Por­                          the Commission shall , with the assent of the Coun­
          tugal is not treated less favourably than third
          countries , and
                                                                                 cil, take the appropriate measures.
                                                                  ANNEX
                                              Procedures and criteria for the assessment of aid
1 . AH aid to the iron and steel industry, whether specific or                   aid under normal market conditions, by the expiry of the
non-specific, financed by the Portuguese State or through                        transitional arrangements at the latest,
State resources in any form whatsoever may be considered                   — in the overall production capacity of the recipient under­
compatible with the orderly functioning of the common mar­                       taking the said restructuring programme does not make
ket only if it respects the general rules set out in paragraph 2                 provision for an increase in production capacity for the
and satisfies the provisions of paragraphs 3 to 6. Such aid shall                various categories of products for which there is not a
be put into effect only in accordance with the procedures                        growth market,
established in this Annex .
                                                                           — the amount and intensity of the aids granted to the steel
                                                                                  undertaking are progressively reduced,
The concept of aid includes aid granted by regional or local
authorities and any aid elements contained in the financing                — the aid in question does not entail distortions of competi­
measures taken by the Portuguese State in respect of the iron                    tion and does not affect trading conditions to an extent
and steel undertaking which it controls and which do not                         contrary to the common interest,
count as the provision of risk capital according to standard               —     the aid is approved not later than 36 months after acces­
company practice in a market economy.                                            sion and does not lead to any payments after the expiry
                                                                                 of the transitional arrangements, other than by way of
2 . Aid granted to the Portuguese iron and steel industry may                     interest subsidies or of payments to honour guarantees on
be considered compatible with the orderly functioning of the                     loans disbursed before that date .
common market provided that :
— the recipient undertaking is engaged in the implementa­                   In taking a decision on such requests for aid as are submitted
     tion of a systematic and specific restructuring programme             to it within the framework of the restructuring programme, the
     covering the various aspects of restructuring ( moderniza­            Commission shall take account of Portugal's special situation
     tion, reduction of capacity and, where necessary, finan­              as one of the Member States having a single iron and steel
     cial restructuring), which is capable of restoring its com­           undertaking with only a slight impact on the Community mar­
     petitiveness and of making it financially viable without              ket .
 ---pagebreak---    15 . 11.85                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                             461
  3 . Aid in support of investment in the iron and steel industry        — it is limited in intensity and amount to what is absolutely
  may be considered compatible with the orderly functioning of                 necessary in order to enable operation to continue during
  the common market provided that :                                            the period of restructuring, and is justified by the extent
  — the Commission has received prior notification of the
                                                                               of the restructuring effort made, account also being taken
                                                                               of any aid granted for investment.
        investment programme where such notification is
        required by Commission Decision No 3302/81 / ECSC of
         18 November 1981 , on the information to be furnished by        In its examination of such aid the Commission shall take
        steel undertakings about their investments or by any sub­        account of the problems facing the unit or units in question
        sequent decision,                                                and the region or regions concerned, and of the secondary
                                                                         effects of the aid on competition on markets other than the
  — the amount and intensity of the aid are justified by the             steel market, in particular the transport market.
        extent of the restructuring effort that has been made,
        account being taken of the structural problems of the
        region where the investment is to be undertaken, and are         6. Aid to defray expenditure by steel undertakings on
        limited to what is necessary for that purpose,                   research and development projects may be considered com­
                                                                         patible with the orderly functioning of the common market
  — the investment programme takes account of the criteria               provided that the research and/or development project in
        defined in paragraph 2 and of the general objectives for         question has one of the following objectives :
        steel, having regard to any reasoned opinion which the
        Commission may have issued on the investment pro­                — a reduction in the costs of production, notably energy
        gramme concerned.                                                      saving, or an improvement in productivity,
                                                                         — an improvement in product quality,
  In its examination of such aid the Commission shall take               — an improvement in the performance of iron and steel
  account of the extent of the contribution of the investment                  products or an increase in the range of uses of steel ,
  programme concerned to other Community objectives, for
  instance innovation, energy saving and environmental protec­           — an improvement in working conditions as regards health
  tion, provided that the rules of paragraph 2 are adhered to.                 and safety.
  4. Aid to defray the normal costs resulting from the partial or        The total amount of all aid granted for the above purposes
  total closure of steel plants may be considered compatible             may not exceed 50 % of the eligible costs of the project. The
  with the orderly functioning of the common market.                     costs eligible for such aid shall mean the costs directly asso­
                                                                         ciated with the project and shall exclude in particular all
                                                                         expenditure on investment related to production processes.
v The costs eligible for such aid shall be the following :
  — allowances paid to workers made redundant or retired                 7.   The Commission shall seek the views of the Member
        before legal retirement age, where such allowances are           States on the aid projects notified to it by the Portuguese
        not covered by aids pursuant to Article 56 ( 1 ) (c) or (2) (b)  Government before adopting a position on them . It shall
        of the Treaty,                                                   inform all Member States of the position adopted by it on
  — compensation due to third parties in respect of the termi­           each aid project.
        nation of contracts , in particular for the supply of raw
        materials,                                                       If, after giving notice to the parties concerned to submit their
  — expenditure incurred for the redevelopment of the site,              comments, the Commission finds that an aid is incompatible
        the buildings and/or infrastructures of closed steel plant       with the provisions of this Annex , it shall inform the
        for alternative industrial use .                                 Portuguese Government of its decision. Article 88 of the
                                                                         Treaty shall apply in the event of failure by the Portuguese
                                                                         Government to comply with that decision.
  Exceptionally and by way of derogation from paragraph 4 of
  Protocol 20 and the fifth indent of paragraph 2 of this Annex ,
  aid for closures which could not be foreseen in the pro­               8 . The Portuguese Government shall supply the Commission
  grammes notified not more than 18 months after accession               twice a year with reports on aid disbursed in the course of the
  may be notified to the Commission after that date and author­          preceding six months, on the uses made of such aid and on the
  ized later than the first 36 months following accession .              results achieved during the same period as regards restructur­
                                                                         ing. These reports must include details of all financial mea­
                                                                         sures taken by the Portuguese State or by regional or local
  5 . Aid to facilitate the operation of certain undertakings or
                                                                         authorities in respect of public steel undertakings . They must
  plants may be considered compatible with the orderly func­             be forwarded within two months of the end of each six-month
  tioning of the common market provided that :
                                                                         period in a form to be determined by the Commission.
  — this aid forms an integral part of a restructuring pro­
        gramme as defined in the first indent of paragraph 2,            The first of these reports will concern aid disbursed during the
  —     it is progressively reduced at least once a year.                first six months following accession.