13.3.2002 Official Journal of the European Communities L70/17 (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 28 November 2001 on the State aid which Germany is planning to implement for EKO Stahl GmbH (notified under document number C(2001) 3732) (Only the German version is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2002/213ECSC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, and in particular Article 62(1)(a) thereof, read in conjunc- tion with Protocol 14, Having regard to Commission Decision No 2496/96/ECSC of 18 December 1996 establishing Community rules for State aid to the steel industry (!), and in particular Article 6(5), Having called on interested parties to submit their comments pursuant to the abovementioned Decision (?) and having regard to those comments, Whereas: I. PROCEDURE (1) By letter dated 5 October 2000, Germany notified the Commission of its intention to grant aid to EKO Stahl GmbH (hereinafter EKO Stahl) to help finance an R&D project. (2) By letter dated 2 March 2001, the Commission informed Germany that it had decided to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 6(5) of Commission Decision No 2496[96/ECSC (hereinafter the steel aid code) in respect of the aid. (3)  The Commission Decision to initiate the procedure was published in the Official Journal of the European Communi- 0] L 338, 28.12.1996, p. 42. () O] C 166, 9.6.2001, p. 2. ties ). The Commission invited interested parties to submit their comments on the aid. (4)  Germany presented its comments on the Commission Decision by letter dated 27 April 2001. The Commis- sion received comments from the United Kingdom by letter dated 5 July 2001 and forwarded them to Germany by letter dated 1 August 2001. Germany gave its response by letter dated 23 August 2001. II. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE AID (5)  The aid notified for EKO Stahl was to be used to finance the company's participation in the project ‘Methods and instruments to create, stabilise and evaluate permanent adaptability: personnel and know-how’. This is a joint project carried out with eight other partners, mainly active in the field of human resources and information technology. The costs for EKO Stahl amount to EUR 665007 and the notified aid to EUR 399 004. The proposed aid intensity is thus 60 %, corresponding to 50 % for industrial research plus a regional bonus of ten percentage points because EKO Stahl is located in an Article 87(3)(a) region. The costs comprise personnel, travelling and administrative expenses. The project is to run from July 2000 to March 2003. (6)  The overall project is described as a sociological research project designed to develop methods and instruments for stabilising the long-term adaptability of workers. One element of this project is ‘personnel and know- how’, the area where EKO Stahl would be more directly involved and where methods and instruments are to be developed that enable staff and management to achieve a given level of adaptability and to build on it as new developments occur. () See footnote 2.