Press Release: State aid: Commission refers France to Court for failure to recover incompatible aid from Arbel Fauvet Rail

The European Commission has referred France to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for not complying with a decision of June 2010 concluding that aid in the form of preferential interest rates on two loans to Arbel Fauvet Rail was not compatible with EU state aid rules. As France had not notified the loans totalling €2 million for approval before granting them, it has to recover the difference between the terms at which they were granted and the then market rates. This has not been done.