Press Release: State aid: Commission endorses innovation aid for French and Spanish shipbuilders

The European Commission on 16 March 2005 approved, under the EC Treaty's rules on state aid, French and Spanish schemes to provide innovation aid to shipbuilding worth respectively €25 million per annum for six years and €20 million per annum for two years. As with an earlier scheme for Germany (see IP/05/188), the Commission concluded that the aid was not likely to cause undue distortion of competition within the Single Market and was therefore compatible with EC Treaty state aid rules (Article 87) and in particular with the Commission's framework on state aid to shipbuilding (see IP/03/1607).