Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1 . ECSC - Production - Steel production and delivery quota system - Adjustment of delivery quotas - Conditions - Exceptional difficulties due to the scale of the abatement rate for a specific category of products - Assessment - Criteria

( Decision No 234/84, Art . 14 )

2 . ECSC - Production - Steel production and delivery quota system - Adjustment of delivery quotas - Conditions - No authorized aid to cover operating losses - Aid intended to encourage the restructuring of an undertaking - Essential difference

( Decision No 234/84, Art . 14 )

Summary

1 . The fact that an undertaking experiences "exceptional difficulties" justifying, pursuant to Article 14 of Decision No 234/84, an adjustment of delivery quotas must be assessed on the basis only of the situation in the category of products subject to a high abatement rate without taking into account the undertaking' s general profit or loss .

2 . It is the conditions of grant and the object of aid which must be taken into account in determining whether it constitutes aid intended to cover operating losses preventing an adjustment of delivery quotas pursuant to Article 14 of Decision No 234/84 and not its effects on the undertaking' s profit and loss account .

The aim of the extension of the quota system is to promote the restructuring needed to adapt production and capacity to foreseeable demand and to re-establish the competitivity of the European steel industry . It is consistent with that aim that undertakings which have received a form of aid likely to delay the desired restructuring, namely aid intended to cover operating losses, should be excluded from the benefit of the additional quotas, the grant of which may likewise reduce their willingness to restructure . Aid which in practice is likely to promote the desired restructuring and improvement of competitivity cannot, however, be regarded as aid intended to cover operating losses within the meaning of Article 14 of Decision No 234/84 .