L 225/180 Official Journal of the European Union 27.8.2009 COMMISSION DECISION of 8 July 2008 concerning the measures C 58/02 (ex N 118/02) which France has implemented in favour of the Société Nationale Maritime Corse-Méditerranée (SNCM) (notified under document C(2008) 3182) (Only the French text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2009/611/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, in particular the first paragraph of Article 88(2) thereof, Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, in particular Article 62(1)(a) thereof, Having called on interested parties to submit their comments pursuant to those articles (1), and having regard to their comments, Whereas: 1. PROCEDURE On 18 February 2002, the French Republic notified the Commission of the planned restructuring aid for Société Nationale ~ Maritime ~ Corse-Méditerranée ~ (SNCM) (), completed on 3 July 2002 (}). The restructuring aid consisted in the recapitalisation of SNCM by the Compagnie Générale Maritime et Financiére (CGMF) (*) for the sum of EUR 76 million. By letter of 19 August 2002, the Commission notified the French authorities of the decision to initiate the formal  investigation  procedure  pursuant  to Article 88(2) EC laid down in Article 6 of Council Regu- lation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC Treaty (°). On 8 October 2002 (°), the French authorities communicated to the Commission their comments on the decision of 19 August 2002 (). At the request of the French authorities, meetings were organised with the Commission on 24 October 2002, 3 December 2002 and 25 February 2003. In the context of Iinitiating the procedure, the Commission received observations from two under- takings, namely Corsica Ferries France (CFF) on 8 January 2003 (%) and the Stef-TFE group on 7 January 2003, and from various French regional and local authorities on 18 December 2002 and 9 and 10 January 2003. It (10) (11) sent those observations to France for its comments by letters of 13 and 16 January and 5 and 21 February 2003. The French authorities submitted their comments on the observations of CFF and Stef-TFE on 13 February 2003 (°) and 27 May 2003 (19). On 16 January 2003, the Commission sent a request for additional information to which the French authorities replied on 21 February 2003. By letter of 10 February 2003 ('), the French authorities expanded their arguments seeking to demonstrate that the planned aid complied in every respect with the Community Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring firms in difficulty () (the 1999 Guidelines). At the Commission’s request, on 25 February 2003 ('), the French authorities forwarded a copy of the share- holders agreement binding SNCM and the Stef-TFE group. By decision 2004/166/EC of 9 July 2003 (the 2003 decision) (%), the Commission approved, under certain conditions, the grant of restructuring aid to SNCM payable in two parts, one of EUR 66 million and the other of a maximum amount of EUR 10 million to be determined on the basis of net products arising from disposals of assets made after the adoption of the 2003 decision. On 13 October 2003, CFF brought an action for annulment of the 2003 decision before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (the CFI) (Case T-349/03). On 8 September 2004, the Commission decided to regard the amendments requested by France on 23 June 2004, namely the swap of the vessel Aliso with the vessel Asco in the list of vessels which SNCM was authorised to use following the 2003 decision and the sale of the Aliso instead of the Asco, were not such as to call into question the compatibility with the common market of the restructuring aid authorised by the 2003 decision (*%).