16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/1

1.

The distance between the Springfields Fuels Ltd site and the nearest border of another Member State, in this case Ireland is 210 km.

2.

The planned modification entails the introduction of a regulatory discharge limit for airborne krypton-85, all other regulatory discharge limits remaining unchanged.

3.

During normal operating conditions, the planned modification is not liable to cause an exposure of the population in another Member State that would be significant from the point of view of health, in respect of the dose limits laid down in the Basic Safety Standards Directive (3) as well as in the new Basic Safety Standards Directive (4).

4.

In the event of unplanned release of radioactive effluents that may follow the accident of the type and magnitude considered in the General Data, the doses likely to be received by the population of another Member State would not be significant from the point of view of health, in respect of the reference levels laid down in the new Basic Safety Standards Directive.

16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/3

16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/4

16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/4

16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/5

Date of adoption of the decision

:

28 November 2016

Case No

:

79791

Decision No

:

210/16/COL

EFTA State

:

Norway

Region

:

Municipality of Ringerike

Title (and/or name of the beneficiary)

:

Arba Follum AS

Legal basis

:

The Energy Fund scheme approved by the EFTA Surveillance Authority by Decision No 248/11/COL

Type of measure

:

Individual aid under the Energy Fund scheme, subject to a detailed assessment

Objective

:

Environment and innovation

Form of aid

:

Grant

Budget

:

NOK 138 000 000

Intensity

:

47 %

Duration

:

Aid will be distributed in the period 2016-2017

Economic sectors

:

Black pellet production

Name and address of the granting authority

:

16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/6

Date of adoption of the decision

:

1 December 2016

Case No

:

79773

Decision No

:

216/16/COL

EFTA State

:

Norway

Title

:

Reduced rate of taxation on electricity directly provided to vessels

Legal basis

:

The Parliament’s yearly decision on electricity tax, the Act on Excise Duties of 19 May 1933 No 11, the Regulation on Excise Duties and the Act on Tax Payment of 17 June 2005 No 67.

Type of measure

:

Scheme

Objective

:

Environmental protection

Form of aid

:

Tax advantage

Budget

:

Approx. NOK 2 million annually (expected to increase gradually)

Duration

:

10 years, starting from 1 January 2017

Economic sectors

:

Transport

Name and address of the granting authority

:

Other information

:

16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/7

Date of adoption of the decision

:

24 June 2015

Case No

:

77262

Decision No

:

249/15/COL

EFTA State

:

Norway

Title (and/or name of the beneficiary)

:

Evaluation plan for the block exempted Skattefunn aid scheme

Legal basis

:

Norwegian Tax Act of 26 March 1999 No 14 section 16-40

Type of measure

:

Scheme

Objective

:

R&D&I

Form of aid

:

Tax advantage

Budget

:

Estimated to NOK 2 350 million for 2015

Intensity

:

Various

Duration

:

Until 31 December 2020

Economic sectors

:

All

Name and address of the granting authority

:

Other information

:

See also GBER information sheet 44/2014/R&D&I

16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/8

—

a call for proposals for the award of a financial contribution to specific actions in the form of project grants,

—

a call for proposals for the award of a financial contribution to functioning of non-governmental bodies (operating grants)

16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/9

(1)

According to Article 9 of the Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty (1), the Commission may decide — in cases where it intends to adopt a decision requiring that an infringement is brought to an end and the parties concerned offer commitments to meet the concerns expressed to them by the Commission in its preliminary assessment — to make those commitments binding on the undertakings. Such a decision may be adopted for a specified period and shall conclude that there are no longer grounds for action by the Commission. According to Article 27(4) of the same Regulation, the Commission shall publish a concise summary of the case and the main content of the commitments. Interested parties may submit their observations within the time limit fixed by the Commission.

(2)

On 22 April 2015, the Commission adopted a Statement of Objections concerning an alleged infringement of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) by OAO Gazprom and OOO Gazprom Export (‘Gazprom’) on the markets for the upstream wholesale supply of natural gas in each of Bulgaria, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia (‘the CEE’). This document is a preliminary assessment within the meaning of Article 9(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003.

(3)

The Commission's preliminary assessment is that Gazprom is dominant on all eight CEE markets for the upstream wholesale supply of gas. The Commission's preliminary view is that Gazprom may have abused this dominant position contrary to Article 102 of the TFEU.

(4)

In particular, Gazprom may have implemented an overall abusive strategy by imposing territorial restrictions in its supply agreements in the CEE countries. These restrictions include export bans, destination clauses and equivalent measures that may have prevented the cross-border flow of gas.

(5)

These territorial restrictions may have allowed Gazprom to pursue an unfair pricing policy in five Member States, namely Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, by charging prices to wholesalers that were significantly higher than competitive western European gas prices.

(6)

Gazprom may also have abused its dominant market position on the market for the upstream wholesale supply of natural gas in Bulgaria by making the supply of gas dependent on investment in the South Stream pipeline project.

(7)

The Commission's preliminary assessment concludes that Gazprom's practice has the potential to raise barriers to the free flow of gas within the Internal Market, to lower the liquidity and efficiency of gas markets and to result in higher natural gas prices.

(8)

Gazprom does not agree with the Commission's preliminary assessment. It has nevertheless offered commitments pursuant to Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, to meet the Commission's competition concerns. The key elements of the commitments are presented below.

(9)

Gazprom will commit to introduce a number of changes to its relevant contracts in order to remove the obstacles to the free flow of gas at competitive prices in the CEE:

(10)

These commitments should meet the Commission's concerns by ensuring the free flow of gas at competitive prices in the CEE. Gazprom will be prevented from partitioning and isolating the CEE gas markets by relying on explicit territorial restrictions or other contractual measures having the effect equivalent to territorial restrictions. The Commission notes that the situation in the CEE has improved in terms of the connecting gas infrastructure and in terms of the CEE customers' ability to trade gas across borders, either through reverse flows or gas swaps. However, the same possibilities are still insufficiently present in the Baltic States and Bulgaria.

(11)

The commitments will compensate for the unavailability of gas flows between, on the one hand, the rest of the CEE and, on the other hand, Bulgaria or the Baltic States. Gazprom will provide CEE customers with a possibility to carry out swap-like operations to enable them to bring more gas liquidity into the Baltic States and Bulgaria. Gazprom will be able to charge a service fee for this, as it could for a typical swap in markets where transportation of gas is available. The possibility of such swap-like operations will be of particular importance in case the gas prices in the Baltic States or Bulgaria were to diverge significantly from the rest of the CEE.

(12)

These commitments should meet the Commission's concerns on prices for the five Member States by allowing customers to trigger a price revision under their contracts in case the contractual price, inter alia, deviates from the prices at generally accepted liquid hubs in Continental Europe. The commitments will also provide explicit substantive guidance on the competitive western European benchmarks to be used for a price review. This will ensure that customers in the five CEE Member States will obtain an explicit contractual right to refer to competitive and liquid hub prices when reviewing their contractual price. The explicit reference to competitive western European benchmarks will also highlight their importance to arbitrators, in case price revision negotiations are followed by arbitration. All of this will ensure that CEE gas prices will not divert significantly from competitive benchmarks in the future.

(13)

In relation to Bulgaria, the commitments will also remove the threat of damages actions, independent of whether such claims would have been valid or not, against the Bulgarian counterparts following the termination of the South Stream project. This will ensure that the alleged abuse that Gazprom has made the supply of gas dependent on investment in the gas infrastructure in Bulgaria is deprived of its effects.

(14)

The commitments are published in full in English on the website of the Directorate-General for Competition at:

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/index_en.html

(15)

Subject to market testing, the Commission intends to adopt a decision under Article 9(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 declaring binding the commitments summarised above and published on the internet, on the website of the Directorate-General for Competition, to be binding.

(16)

In accordance with Article 27(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, the Commission invites interested third parties to submit their observations on the proposed commitments. These observations must reach the Commission not later than 7 weeks following the date of this publication. Interested third parties are also asked to submit a non-confidential version of their comments, in which any information they claim to be business secrets and other confidential information should be deleted and replaced as required by a non-confidential summary or by the words ‘business secrets’ or ‘confidential’.

(17)

Answers and comments should preferably be reasoned and should set out the relevant facts. If you identify a problem with any part of the proposed commitments, the Commission would also invite you to suggest a possible solution.

(18)

Observations can be sent to the Commission under reference AT.39816 — Upstream gas supplies in central and eastern Europe either by e-mail (COMP-GREFFE-ANTITRUST@ec.europa.eu), by fax (+32 22950128) or by post, to the following address:

16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/12

1.

On 8 March 2017 the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertaking Lear Corporation (‘Lear’ of the USA), acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control over the seats and metal business of Grupo Antolín-Irausa, SA (Spain) (‘Grupo Antolín Assets’) by way of purchase of shares and single assets.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

3.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved. Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under the Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in this Notice.

4.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by email to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference M.8405 — Lear/Grupo Antolín Assets, to the following address:

16.3.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 81/13

1.

On 9 March 2017, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertakings Megatrends European Holdings SARL (‘Megatrends’, Luxembourg) and Allianz SE (‘Allianz’, Germany) indirectly acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation joint control of the whole of the undertaking NRF (Finland) AB, which in turn ultimately controls the Kamppi Shopping Centre, by way of purchase of shares.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

3.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved. Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under the Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in this Notice.

4.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by email to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference M.8420 — Megatrends European Holdings/Allianz/Kamppi Shopping Centre, to the following address: