92003E0568

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0568/03

by Ria Oomen-Ruijten (PPE-DE), Bert Doorn (PPE-DE)and Alexander de Roo (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(27 February 2003)

Subject: Government aid for the Laarbruch airfield

A civilian airport is currently being developed at the former (German) military airfield in Laarbruch. A private company, Flughafen Niederrhein GmbH, purchased the complex (with an area of 615 ha) from the German Vermögensverwaltung (Public assets management agency) at a cost of EUR 11,5 million. Flughafen Niederrhein GmbH simultaneously sold the complex on for the same price to the Van de Lande group. The airfield is now called Airport Niederrhein (Lower Rhine Airport). Of the EUR 11,5 million, EUR 3,83 million has already been paid and another EUR 3,83 million will be paid at the end of 2003. The remaining EUR 3,83 million only needs to be paid

if the airport has not created 350 jobs by the end of 2007. There was no public invitation to tender for the sale of the site, even though gravel extraction firms were prepared to pay 3 times as much. The German Land of North Rhine-Westphalia is expected to have to provide an annual amount of EUR 3,83 million to cover costs including public utilities for the civilian airport.

This raises the following questions:

1. Was this project notified, or did an investigation take place, in connection with the European regulations on government aid?

2. If such an investigation did take place, what were its conclusions?

3. If no such investigation took place, does the Commission now propose to carry one out at short notice?

4. What measures will the Commission take if an investigation shows or has shown that this case involves government aid which is not covered by the European regulations in this area?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(8 April 2003)

1. and 2. The Commission can herewith inform the Honourable Members that the Commission has not received any notification with regard to the development of Laarbrucher Airport and that no investigation has been carried out by the Commission in connection herewith.

3. and 4. According to the Commission Communication on State aid elements in sales of land and buildings by public authorities(1), no state aid issues arises were the public assets have been sold at a market value. Although the information provided by the Honourable Members does not, a priori, indicate that the airport was sold below market price or on non-commercial terms it cannot, in the absence of a tendering procedure, be excluded that this has been the case. Therefore, the Commission will request information from the competent Member State in order to assess whether or not the sale of the airport has been carried out under market conditions.

In case this inquiry would indicate that State aid elements may be present, the Commission will initiate the procedures foreseen under Article 88 of the EC Treaty and Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 (new Article 88) of the EC Treaty(2).

(1) OJ C 209, 10.7.1997.

(2) OJ L 83, 27.3.1999.