EU demands recovery of shipyard aid
Greece must recover more than 230 million euros in state aid it unlawfully gave to Hellenic Shipyards, currently owned by Germany’s Thyssenkrupp, the European Commission said yesterday. The money was transferred between 1996 and 2002 when Greece implemented 16 aid measures. Brussels authorized 160 million euros in aid in 1997 in return for restructuring the yard’s civil commercial activities. «Unfortunately, some crucial conditions attached to the approval have not been complied with,» EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement. «In addition, Greece repeatedly provided unlawful and incompatible financing to the loss-making civil activities of the yard until 2002. The illegal aid must now be recovered,» Kroes said. Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis said the total state aid paid to the shipyard under investigation was in excess of 1 billion euros but 75 percent of the funding was deemed to be related to military activities. «The decision for the recovery of 230 million euros relates to the commercial operations of Hellenic Shipyards,» the minister said. Brussels is also challenging Poland over its shipyards by seeking to recover 1.3 billion euros in Polish aid unless three yards, including the birthplace of anti-communist movement Solidarity, are scaled down.
