Brussels to investigate aid to VW and BMW

More than €100m of investment aid to two of Germany’s biggest carmakers – BMW and Volkswagen – will be investigated by European Commission competition authorities to see whether it complies with European Union state aid rules.

Officials at the European Commission said on the 13 July 2011 that they would look into German government plans to grant €46m of regional aid towards a €368m electric car project at a BMW plant in Leipzig, to see whether it was compatible with EU state aid rules.

European Commission: RAPID: Press Release: IP/11/875: State aid: decisions on regional investment aid for BMW, Volkswagen, Globalfoundries and CRS Reprocessing in Germany and AU Optronics in Slovakia http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/875&format=PDF&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Deutsche Welle, 13.7.11: EU to investigate state aid to German carmakers http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15230457,00.html

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