Press Release: State aid: Commission orders Spain to recover unlawful aid from SNIACE

The European Commission found under EC Treaty state aid rules that the non-enforcement of several debt rescheduling agreements in favour of the Spanish synthetic fibres producer SNIACE between 1993 and 1996 involve state aid. The aid was incompatible because it merely relieves SNIACE from ordinary business charges that its competitors had to pay, without furthering any public interest goal. Such aid confered an unfair competitive advantage on the beneficiary. The Commission has therefore ordered Spain to recover aid amounting to more than €22.6 million, plus interest, from SNIACE. The investigation, initially launched in 1998, was reopened following two EU Court judgements of 2004 and 2007.