19.9.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities L 249/21 COMMISSION DECISION of 18 July 2001 on the training aid granted by Belgium to Sabena (notified under document number C(2001) 2350) (Only the Dutch and French texts are authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2001/698/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Communities, and in particular the first subparagraph of Article 88(2) thereof, Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, and in particular Article 62(1)(a) thereof, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC Treaty (1), Having called on interested parties to submit their comments pursuant to the provisions cited above (?) and having regard to their comments, Whereas: I. PROCEDURE (1) By letter dated 5 August 1997, Belgium notified the Commission of a training aid scheme (hereinafter referred to as the ‘scheme’) for Sabena. It furnished the Commission with supplementary information by letters dated 29 September 1997, 2 December 1997, 18 January 1999, 24 March 1999 and 26 May 1999. Inter alia, this information showed that the scheme had already started on 18 November 1997. (2) By letter dated 25 October 1999, the Commission informed Belgium of its decision to initiate the proce- dure laid down in Article 88(2) of the EC Treaty in respect of this aid. Belgium replied by letter of 26 November 1999, submitting its comments. () O] L 83, 27.3.1999, p. 1. () O] C 351, 412.1999, p. 12. (3)  The Commission decision to initiate the procedure was also published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (*). The Commission called on interested parties to submit their comments. (4 The Commission has received comments from interested parties. On 27 March 2000, it transmitted them to Belgium, which has had the opportunity to react. No comments were received from Belgium. II. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE AID (5 The scheme was to run from 1 March 1997 to 31 December 1998. It concerned 522 employees from the airline, 122 of them from the ‘Technics’ department, 360 from the ‘Cargo’ department and 40 from the ‘Commercial and maintenance’ department: — in the ‘Technics’ department, replacing Boeing 737 and A310 aircraft with A330s, standardising the fleet with the Swissair and Austrian Airlines fleet, fully integrating electronics and computers and the increasing use of composite materials meant that personnel needed to be retrained and given more versatile skills, — in the ‘Cargo’ department, expanding the range of more directly client-centred tasks and reorganising activities as a result of the cooperation agreement with Swissair Cargo meant that personnel skills had to be more versatile and basic qualifications reviewed, — In the ‘Commercial and maintenance’ department, a proportion of the personnel were to be transferred to more complex duties (sales staff, cabin crew, check-in staff), again requiring greater versatility. () See footnote 2.