EU: No proof so far of illegal Olympic aid
While an investigation by the European Commission into alleged illegal government funding for chronically ailing Olympic Airways has so far turned up no proof of impropriety, if illegal loans were given they will have to be returned, a top EU official was quoted as saying on Saturday. According to a report in the Agence France-Presse, EU Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said in Thessaloniki that the commission would be strict if the charges were proved. «There is something the European Union is very clear about, and that is that state aid is forbidden,» she told journalists on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Federation of Industries of Northern Greece. De Palacio added that there was nothing so far to confirm that Olympic or its subsidiaries had improperly benefited from state aid. Olympic was granted a 19.5-million-euro loan in January by state-controlled Commercial Bank. But she said that had Olympic received any improper loans, it should pay them back. «That is very clear,» she said.
