2000/536/EC: Commission Decision of 2 June 1999 concerning State aid granted by Italy to Seleco SpA (notified under document number C(1999) 1524) (Text with EEA relevance) (Only the Italian text is authentic)

• Articles: 4

Article 1

The following aid granted by Italy to Seleco SpA is hereby declared incompatible with the common market:

(a) the partial write-off in 1994 by Ristrutturazione Elettronica SpA of ITL 16,8 billion on a loan of ITL 82 billion;

(b) the repurchase in 1996 by Seleco SpA of its outstanding debt to Ristrutturazione Elettronica SpA of ITL 65,2 billion for ITL 20 billion;

(c) the conversion into shares by Friulia SpA of an ITL 6 billion loan granted by it in 1992;

(d) a capital injection of ITL 7 billion by Friulia SpA in 1994;

(e) a convertible loan of ITL 12 billion at 7 % granted by Friulia in 1996 and guaranteed by a lien on four industrial brands owned by Seleco.

Article 2

1. Italy shall take all the necessary measures to recover the aid referred to in Article 1, which has already been granted unlawfully, from Seleco SpA and, additionally, with regard to the part not recoverable from Seleco, from Seleco Multimedia srl and any other firm which benefited from asset transfers designed to frustrate the effects of this decision.

2. Recovery shall be effected in accordance with the procedures of national law. The aid to be recovered shall include interest from the date on which it was made available to the recipient until the date of its recovery. Interest shall be calculated on the basis of the reference rate used for calculating the net grant equivalent of regional aid applicable at the time the aid was granted.

Article 3

Italy shall inform the Commission, within two months of notification of this Decision, of the measures taken to comply with it.

Article 4

This Decision is addressed to the Italian Republic.

Done at Brussels, 2 June 1999.

For the Commission

Karel Van Miert

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ C 373, 29.12.1994, p. 5.

(2) OJ C 155, 20.5.1998, p. 10.

(3) Not yet published in the Official Journal.

(4) Public agency for the reconstruction of the consumer electronics industry in Italy, whose activities were the subject of the Decisions of 17 January 1984 and 17 September 1985. By Decision of 20 May 1992 (OJ C 166, 3.7.1992, p. 6), the Commission approved aid granted by REL to a dozen firms in the consumer electronics industry, the largest of which was Seleco SpA.

(5) See footnote 4.

(6) OJ C 368, 23.12.1994, p. 12.

(7) Source:

"Panorama of EU industry, 1994" Eurostat.

(8) Source:

"Euromonitor", February 1994, "Television and video products in Italy".

(9) Bulletin EC 9-1984

(10) It might be concluded that the behaviour of REL amounted to granting aid to the other Seleco shareholders, in proportion to their individual liability for loss. But the Commission considers that such an effect is indirect, marginal and, in any event, peripheral to the direct and selective effect on Seleco.

(11) Official Gazette of the Italian Republic No 81, 6.4.1942.

(12) [1973] ECR 813.

(13) [1987] ECR I-901.

(14) [1990] ECR I-3437.