Decision 2009/612 - 2009/612/EC: Commission Decision of 10 March 2009 on measure C 5/2000 (ex NN 118/97) implemented by Spain in favour of SNIACE SA, located in Torrelavega, Cantabria, and amending Decision 1999/395/EC (Notified under document C(2009) 1479) - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/4

By letter of 17 April 1997, the Commission received a complaint from the Austrian undertaking Lenzing AG, the Community’s main producer of viscose fibres, concerning a number of measures granted to its Spanish competitor Sociedad Nacional de Industrias y Aplicaciones de Celulosa Española SA (hereinafter SNIACE).

By letter of 7 November 1997, the Commission informed the Spanish Government of its decision to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 88(2) of the Treaty.

By Decision 1999/395/EC (2) (hereinafter the Decision of 1998), the Commission considered the aid granted in favour of SNIACE by the Fondo de Garantía Salarial (the Wages Guarantee Fund, hereinafter FOGASA) and the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social (the General Social Security Treasury, hereinafter the TGSS) to be unlawful and incompatible with the common market because the debt repayment agreements concluded between SNIACE and FOGASA and the rescheduling agreement concluded between SNIACE and the TGSS did not comply with market conditions as the interest rates applied to the agreements were below market rates. That unfavourable decision ordered Spain to require the recipient to repay the contested aid.

In the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Communities of 29 April 1999 in Case C-342/96 Spain v Commission (hereinafter Tubacex) (3), the Court considered that the debt rescheduling agreements concluded by the TGSS and FOGASA did not constitute State Aid as those public institutions had acted as a private creditor would have done to try to recover amounts owed to it, provided that the interest rate was at least equal to the rate that a private creditor would have applied (4) and that the rescheduling agreement did not result in new debts being accumulated.

In the light of the Tubacex judgment, the Commission decided to reassess the Decision of 1998, as it considered that its conclusions were applicable to SNIACE. Consequently, by letter of 16 February 2000 addressed to the Spanish authorities, the Commission decided to initiate the formal investigation procedure (5) laid down in the first subparagraph of Article 88(2) of the Treaty in order to partially revoke the Decision of 1998 (hereinafter the second initiation of the procedure).

By letter of 21 March 2000, Spain sent its comments to the Commission on the decision concerning the second initiation of the procedure.

In the light of the comments made by the Spanish authorities and interested parties after the second initiation of the procedure, the Commission terminated the formal investigation procedure on 20 September 2000 by means of Commission Decision 2001/43/EC (6) (hereinafter the Decision of 2000), concluding that the measures granted to SNIACE did not constitute State aid pursuant to the Tubacex judgment. The Decision of 1998 was partially amended pursuant to the Decision of 2000, whereby the first paragraph of Article 1 was...