L 236/50 Official Journal of the European Union 3.9.2008 COMMISSION DECISION of 16 April 2008 on State aid C 23/07 (ex N 118/07) which the United Kingdom is planning to implement for Vauxhall Motors Ltd (notified under document number C(2008) 1333) (Only the English text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2008/710/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, 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 called on interested parties to submit their comments pursuant to those provisions () and having regard to their comments, Whereas: 1. PROCEDURE By letter dated 28 February 2007, registered with the Commission on 6 March 2007, the United Kingdom notified the Commission of the abovementioned aid for General Motor Corporation’s (GM) Vauxhall assembly plant at Ellesmere Port. The Commission requested complementary information by letter dated 4 April 2007 (ref. D/51586), to which the authorities replied by letter dated 22 May 2007. By letter dated 10 July 2007, the Commission informed the United Kingdom that it had decided to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 88(2) of the Treaty in respect of the aid. The Commission Decision to initiate the procedure (the opening Decision) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (}). The Commission called on interested parties to submit their comments. () O] C 243, 17.10.2007, p. 4. () See footnote 1. ) The United Kingdom submitted its comments by letters dated 10 August 2007 (registered with the Commission on that date as ref. A[36735) and 29 January 2008 (registered with the Commission on that date as ref. A[1724). A meeting between Commission services and the UK authorities in the presence of the beneficiary of the aid was held on 10 January 2008. The Commission received comments from interested parties. It forwarded the comments to the United Kingdom, which was given the opportunity to react. 2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE AID 2.1. The beneficiary The aid recipient is Vauxhall Motors Ltd, Ellesmere Port, UK (Vauxhall), a car manufacturing plant which is an operating unit of Vauxhall Motors Ltd and part of GM. It manufactures cars from the Opel model range (which are sold in the United Kingdom under the Vauxhall badge), currently the Astra which will terminate in 2009. Vauxhall is located in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire in the North-West region of England (}) and employs close to 2 200 workers. On 17 April 2007, GM announced that Vauxhall was amongst the European GM sites that had been selected to produce the Global Compact Vehicle, the model that will replace the Astra. 2.2. The training programme Vauxhall intends to implement a wide-ranging training programme for its workforce. The training is to be broken down into eight individual training areas, of which the following six are considered by the United Kingdom to be eligible for training aid: () Vauxhall is located in an area which until 31 December 2006 qualified for regional aid under Article 87(3)(c) of the EC Treaty. Since 1 January 2007, the region is an unassisted area.