Spain Contests Decision On Shipyard Aid

The Spanish government said last week that it would appeal a European Commission decision ordering Spain's state-owned shipyards to repay with interest $118 million in state aid. "The industry ministry and the government is absolutely convinced that this aid for shipbuilders is correct," Industry Secretary Jose Manuel Serra said. He said the payments, made in 1998, were within a $370.6 million aid plan authorized by Brussels. Shipyard workers staged a one-day strike at yards across Spain in protest at Tuesday's ruling by the commission. Unions called for a change in European legislation on the industry. Serra said conditions in which European shipyards compete with companies from other regions. "You can't establish rules for European shipbuilders when they are competing in an international market and the rest of the (world's) shipbuilders are not subject to the same rules," Serra said. The Commission, which rules on the legality of state aid in the 15-member European Union, said the yards had been granted aid in 1997 in the form of special tax credits, but then obtained additional, unjustifiable credits when they were integrated into state holding company SEPI. - (Reuters)