(1)

On 30 January 2002, after a formal investigation procedure, the Commission adopted Decision 2002/610/EC (1) approving, subject to certain conditions set out below, an aid scheme to promote the start-up of new short sea shipping services, hereinafter referred to as the ‘final decision’. The 26th recital of the final decision states that France accepts procedural conditions which are in particular binding on projects granting aid to an intra-Community sea shipping service between a French port and a port of another Member State and not on those involving sea shipping services between two French ports.

(2)

On 18 November 2004 the French authorities asked the Commission to amend the final decision to take account of the new, more favourable provisions of the Community guidelines on State aid to maritime transport (2), hereinafter referred to as ‘the Community guidelines’.

(3)

The measure to which the final decision refers is entitled: régime d’aides en faveur du lancement de nouvelles lignes de transport maritime à courte distance (Aid scheme for the start-up of new short sea shipping services).

(4)

The main objective of the proposed amendments is to take into account the new legal framework provided by the Community guidelines as regards aid for the start-up of short sea shipping services and to make the conditions imposed by the final decision compatible with these new Community guidelines on State aid.

(5)

Recital 26 of the final decision states that ‘To ensure transparency and equal treatment of operators during the project selection procedure, the French authorities have given an undertaking to observe the following procedures:

(6)

According to the French authorities, the procedures referred to in particular in paragraph (b) of this recital turn out to take a long time to implement and are therefore prejudicial to the smooth progress of such projects.

(7)

The French authorities would like to see the final decision amended so as to reflect Chapter 10 of the Community guidelines on State aid to maritime transport, which is the chapter dealing with aid to short sea shipping services.

(8)

The Commission notes first of all that the previous Community guidelines (3), which were applicable when the final decision was adopted, laid down no particular rule on aid for the start-up of short sea shipping services. Accordingly, it was not illogical for the Commission to lay down in its final decision particular ad hoc rules for approving the specific French scheme designed to support the start-up of short sea shipping services.

(9)

The Commission also notes that in the mean time it has adopted new Community guidelines and that the latter now provide a framework for State aid for the start-up of short sea shipping services modelled on the objectives pursued by Regulation (EC) No 1382/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 July 2003 on the granting of Community financial assistance to improve the environmental performance of the freight transport system (Marco Polo Programme) (4), which was likewise adopted after the final decision.

(10)

Chapter 10 of the new Community guidelines provides that individual aid for short sea shipping services is to be considered compatible with the common market if it fulfils the following conditions:

(11)

In particular, the Commission notes that the new Community guidelines make no distinction as to whether the shipping service assisted plies between two ports of two different Member States or of the same Member State. The Commission considers that there is no longer any objective reason for maintaining the distinction between the two types of situations, as explained in recital 26 of the final decision.

(12)

Moreover, the Commission considers that the Community guidelines do not prevent a Member State from implementing a scheme providing aid to short sea shipping services if the individual aid granted under this scheme meets the abovementioned conditions.

(13)

The option of not changing the final decision would, on the one hand, enable France to grant individual aid to services between French ports under conditions more favourable than those provided in the new Community guidelines and, on the other hand, penalise France in setting up projects for services between a French port and a port of another Member State through formal procedures as envisaged in recital 26 of the final decision. Not only do these formal procedures lack any raison d’être in the light of the new Community guidelines but they also place France in a position of inequality in relation to other States which on the basis of the new Community guidelines wish to establish aid schemes or grant individual aid on an ad hoc basis to short sea shipping services with their neighbours.

(14)

In accordance with Article 88(1) of the Treaty, the Commission must also keep existing schemes under constant review. To this end, it must verify that the rules governing State aid apply uniformly to all existing schemes in the Member States. In particular, the Commission must propose to the latter any appropriate measures required by the progressive development or by the functioning of the common market when more restrictive Community rules enter into force. Otherwise, the Commission would not be able to maintain, pursuant to one of its earlier conditional final decisions, a constraint on a scheme of one Member State while the other Member States implementing similar schemes would not be subject to such a constraint.

(15)

The option of changing the final decision would make it possible to anticipate the application of the new Community guidelines to the scheme existing in France for the start-up of short sea shipping services before the deadline laid down by the Commission in the new Community guidelines, namely 30 June 2005, so that Member States can, through appropriate measures, bring all their existing schemes into line with the new Community guidelines.

(16)

In conclusion the Commission considers that Decision 2002/610/EC should be amended. The proposed amendment will enable France to bring its scheme into line with the provisions laid down in the new Community guidelines in respect of sea shipping services between a French port and a port of another Member State and will also enable projects granting aid to sea shipping services between two French ports to be made subject to the conditions laid down in the new Community guidelines. More generally, this amendment will mean that France will be implementing its scheme under conditions identical to those prevailing in all the other Member States in pursuance of the said guidelines,