No L 102/42 Official Journal of the European Communities 19. 4. 97 COMMISSION DECISION of 18 December 1996 concerning aid for closures envisaged by Italy as part of the restructuring of its private steel industry (Only the Italian text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (97/258/ECSC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, Having regard to Commission Decision No 3855/91/ ECSC of 27 November 1991 establishing Community rules for aid to the steel industry ('), After giving notice to the parties concerned, in accord- ance with the abovementioned Decision, to submit their comments and taking into account those comments (%), Whereas: By letter of 12 June 1996 the Commission notified the Italian authorities of its decision to initiate the procedure provided for in Article 6 (4) of Decision No 3855/91/ ECSC, hereinafter the ‘Steel Aid Code’, in respect of aid they planned to grant, under a programme for the restruc- turing of Italy’s private steel industry, to the following five enterprises in the steel sector: — Diano SpA, — Lamifer SpA, — Demafer Sil, — Lavorazione Metalli Vari (LMV) SpA, — Sidercamuna SpA. When it authorized Italian Law No 481 of 3 August 1994 on the restructuring of Italy’s private steel sector after verifying that the Law complied with the Steel Aid Code and in particular with Article 4 thereof, the Commission called on the Italian authorities to notify it in advance of cases in which the Law was to be applied. That Decision also specified that, in order to qualify for aid for closure, the firms concerned had to have been in operation for on average at least one shift per day, ie. at OJ No L 362, 31. 12. 1991, p. 57. OJ No C 101, 3. 4. 1996, p. 4,and O] No C 121, 25. 4. 1996, p- 3. () ¢ least eight hours per day, five days per week for the whole of 1993 and up to February 1994, when Decree-Law No 103/93 was notified to the Commission (the provisions of the Decree-Law were subsequently adopted as Law No 481/94). According to information in the possession of the Commission, the firms concerned satisfied the other requirements set out in Article 4 of the Steel Aid Code governing aid for closures, but were not in regular production at the time of their closure. In Case 177/96 Diano had produced 16 807 tonnes of hot-rolled products, equivalent to 21 % of its capacity; in Case 178/96 Lamifer SpA had produced only 23 542 tonnes of hot-rolled products, equivalent to 15,2 % of its capacity; in Case 182/96 Sidercamuna SpA had produced only 36 002 tonnes of hot-rolled products, equivalent to 7,6 % of its capacity, at the Berzo Inferiore (Brescia) plant. Demafer (Case N 180/96) and LMV (Case 181/96) were not in production in 1993. Accordingly, since it was very difficult to determine whether the aid was compatible with the common market, the Commission decided to initiate the procedure provided for in Article 6 (4) of the Steel Aid Code in respect of the five abovementioned cases. 11 In accordance with that procedure, the Commission invited the Italian Government to submit its comments, while the other Member States and interested parties were informed by way of publication of the decision to initiate the procedure. By two letters of 22 August 1996, the German Govern- ment and Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl notified the Commission of their comments, which were forwarded to the Italian authorities by letter of 16 September 1996. The comments expressed support for the Commission’s de- cision to initiate the procedure.