2004/244/EC: Commission Decision of 11 June 2003 on the State aid implemented by Spain for Volkswagen Navarra SA (Text with EEA relevance) (notified under document number C(2003) 1745)

• Articles: 4

Article 1

The regional investment aid which Spain has planned to implement for Volkswagen Navarra SA for the amount of EUR 19228000 gross grant equivalent in actualised values, base year 2001, discount rate 6,33 %, for the project relating to the production of the new VW Polo model in Arazuri is compatible with the common market within the meaning of Article 87 of the Treaty. This amount corresponds to an aid intensity of 6,42 % of the eligible investment of EUR 299335000 in actualised values.

Article 2

Any State aid in addition to the aid amount referred to in Article 1 that Spain plans to grant to Volkswagen Navarra SA for the project under scrutiny shall be incompatible with the common market.

Article 3

Spain shall inform the Commission, within two months of the date of notification of this decision, of the measures it has taken to comply with it.

Additionally, Spain will provide by April 2005 a report indicating the European capacity at the level of the VW group in December 2004.

Article 4

This Decision is addressed to the Kingdom of Spain.

Done at Brussels, 11 June 2003.

For the Commission

Mario Monti

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ C 161, 5.7.2002, p. 9.

(2) See footnote 1.

(3) The project of the scheme was approved by the Commission on 3 May 2000, case number N 141/2000, OJ C 284, 7.10.2000, p. 4.

(4) See footnote 1.

(5) Confidential information.

(6) OJ C 279, 15.9.1997, p. 1.

(7) That is, EUR [...] for new pre-treatment line for 1500 cars/day minus EUR [...] for the adaptation of the existing line for 1000 cars/day. See recital 27.

(8) This figure results by taking the actualised value of the difference between the eligible costs proposed by Spain (EUR [...]) and the eligible costs calculated by the Commission (EUR [...]).

(9) According to point 3.2.(d) of the car framework, the impact on competition is high when the ratio between the capacity of the group after and before the investment is higher or equal to 1,01. In this case, the impact on competition would be high if VW's capacity were, at the end of the project, of 4299873 vehicles/year or more.