EC: Spanish Shipyards Owe €308.3M
Yesterday the European Commission decided that aid provided to the public Spanish shipyards is not in line with EC rules on State aid to shipbuilding. The Commission has established that State holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), in 1999 and 2000, granted aid worth €500 million to the civil public shipyards that are today all owned by IZAR. The aid took the form of a capital injection, loans and a purchase price above market value. As the loans amounting to € 192.1 million to SEPI were paid back, the sum to be reimbursed will amount to € 308.3 million, plus interest. The object the decision are a number of transactions that took place between 1999 and 2000 involving SEPI and its subsidiaries Astilleros Españoles (AESA)…
European Commission Seeks Legal Action In Subsidy Row
The European Commission taking Spain to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg over its failure to recover around 111 million euros in what it calls illegal state aid to its shipyards. The EU executive said in a statement it had asked Spain in early December to recover the aid, paid in the form of 18,451 billion pesetas in special tax credits in 1998 to the state-owned merchant shipyards grouped in holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI). "Despite reminders, Spain has not complied with the decision, which it was obliged to execute within two months. Faced with such a situation, the Commission is obliged to act," it said in a statement.
Spain Introduces New Military Shipbuilder
The new Spanish military shipbuilder, Navantia, has been unveiled by Pedro Solbes, the Spanish government’s second vice-prime minister and economics minister, along with Enrique Martínez Robles, the Chairman of the state holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), and the Chairman of the new company, Juan Pedro Gómez Jaén. The company, specializing in the design, construction and integration of military ships, is owned by SEPI and is the result of the desegregation of Izar’s military activities in line with the agreement reached in order to make publicly-owned shipyards viable. Mr. Solbes’ referred in his speech to the creation of this new company as the start of a new future for Spanish shipyards…
Privatization of Izar Nears Completion
The privatization of the shipbuilding company IZAR will come to an end on Tuesday when the state-owned holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI) completes the sale of the IZAR facilities in the Basque town of Sestao and Gijon and Seville in Spain. Concerning the Izar facilities in Manises (Valencia), the SEPI is to propose Tuesday the delay of the sale as the European Commission need some more data on it. Spanish trade union CC.OO. is to challenge the privatization of the IZAR factories as, according to the Spanish union, the Spanish Government has broken the agreement reached with the unions in December 2004. Members of the SEPI and the trade unions met Monday for almost three hours within the framework of the committee to follow the agreement.
