2003/739/EC: Commission Decision of 13 May 2003 on the aid scheme which Italy is planning to implement to promote employment in the Region of Sicily (Text with EEA relevance) (notified under document number C(2003) 1484)

• Articles: 3

Article 1

The aid scheme to promote employment, which Italy plans to implement, is incompatible with the common market.

The scheme may accordingly not be implemented.

Article 2

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

Article 3

This Decision is addressed to the Italian Republic.

Done at Brussels, 13 May 2003.

For the Commission

Mario Monti

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 83, 27.3.1999, p. 1.

(2) OJ C 242, 8.10.2002, p. 2.

(3) OJ C 130, 28.4.1998, p. 15.

(4) See footnote 2.

(5) OJ L 337, 13.12.2002, p. 3.

(6) OJ C 74, 10.3.1998, p. 9.

(7) OJ L 10, 13.1.2001, p. 33.

(8) OJ C 28, 1.2.2000, p. 2.

(9) OJ C 19, 20.1.2001, p. 7.

(10) Judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Communities dated 13 July 1988 in Case 102/87 [1988] ECR 4067, paragraph 19.

(11) OJ C 175, 24.6.2000, p. 12.

(12) The Italian authorities have stated that social security contributions represent 45 % of a worker's gross wages. Since the scheme provides for a total exemption from social security contributions for a maximum period of six years, the gross intensity of the scheme is 135 %.

(13) In accordance with Article 2(j), a job is "linked to the carrying-out of a project of investment" if it concerns the activity to which the investment relates and if it is created within three years of the investment's completion. During this period, the jobs created following an increase in the utilisation rate of the capacity created by the investment are also linked to the investment.

(14) See footnote 12.

(15) As regards workers who have been drawing on the Cassa integrazione for at least 24 months, the Commission notes that their situation is in all respects comparable to that of unemployed workers proper. Since the Cassa integrazione is involved above all in restructuring processes that require job cuts, it is highly likely that workers who have been drawing on the fund for 24 months already will be the first to lose their job. A worker who is in a situation of quasi-unemployment through having drawn on the Cassa integrazione for more than 24 months should therefore be regarded as effectively unemployed.