EC Statement: State aid - Commission orders recovery of incompatible aid paid to Deutsche Post
( January 25, 2012, 10:45 GMT | Official Statement) -- MLex Summary: The European Commission has endorsed 5.6 billion euros in German public transfer measures to Deutsche Post for the compensation of public service obligations costs. It has ordered Germany to recover pension subsidies granted since 1995 since the company benefitted during the same period from increased stamp prices to finance a further share of its civil servants' pension costs.
Full statement follows.
State aid: Commission orders recovery of incompatible aid paid to Deutsche Post
The European Commission has concluded its investigation of a series of measures taken by Germany in favour of Deutsche Post. The Commission has found that part of the aid granted was compatible with the internal market and has ordered the recovery of incompatible aid.
From 1990 to 1995, Deutsche Post received public transfers of approximately € 5.6 billion as compensation for the costs of its public service obligations. Since 1995, Deutsche Post has also benefited from pension subsidies of approximately € 37 billion as relief from excessive pension costs of civil servants.
The public transfers of € 5.6 billion did not provide an undue advantage to Deutsche Post because those aid measures only covered the costs of its public service obligations and did not lead to any overcompensation. The Commission has therefore found that these public transfers did not confer an undue economic advantage to the company vis-à-vis its competitors and were in line with the 2005 Framework on services of general economic interest (see OJ C 297, 29.11.2005, p. 4).
By contrast, the pension subsidies granted since 1995 on account of the pension costs of civil servants have conferred an economic advantage to Deutsche Post. In line with previous cases (e.g. pension relief for civil servants working for French La Poste, see IP/07/1465), the Commission has verified whether the social security contributions borne by Deutsche Post were equivalent to those of its private competitors. In addition to the subsidies, Deutsche Post benefitted during the same period from increased stamp prices to finance a further share of the civil servants' pension costs. Taking account of this extra relief, Deutsche Post has effectively borne significantly lower social contributions than its private competitors for services which were open to competition (e.g. parcel services or retail banking). The Commission has ordered the recovery of the incompatible aid in the range of € 500 million to € 1 billion for the period from 2003 onwards....
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