Press Release: State aid: Commission orders recovery of EUR6.7 million of illegal aid to Chemische Werke Piesteritz

The European Commission on 2 March 2005 decided that a number of measures worth €6.7 million benefiting Chemische Werke Piesteritz, a producer of phosphoric acid and phosphates situated in the Land of Sachsen-Anhalt, constituted subsidies liable to distort competition within the EU's Single Market in violation of the EC Treaty's state aid rules (Article 87). The money had to be recovered by the German Government. The measures were provided to the company in the years 1997 and 1998 to help the company with its restructuring.