31.1.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities L 29/45 COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 20 September 2000 authorising France to grant aid to the coal industry for 1997, 1998 and 1999 (notified under document number C(2000) 2957) (Only the French text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2001/85/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 3632/93/ECSC of 28 December 1993 establishing Community rules for State aid to the coal industry (1), and in particular Article 2(1) thereof, Having regard to Commission Decision 95/465/ECSC of 19 July 1995 approving the French coal industry's plan for the reduction of activity (), Whereas: By letters of 31 July 1997, 13 August 1998 and 10 May 1999, France notified the Commission, in accordance with Article 9(1) of Decision No 3632/93/ECSC, of the financial aid which it proposed to grant to the coal industry for 1997, 1998 and 1999 respectively. The Commission noted that the aid as notified by France, which consisted of direct subsidies under the general State budget and capital injections from a special Treasury account, did not enable the operating losses for the current production to be covered. The outstanding amount of the losses for the three years has been covered, according to a memorandum from the French authorities of 25 March 1998, by loan issues floated by Charbonnages de France on the financial market. In its letter of formal notice to France of 26 July 1999 (), the Commision considered that the conditions under which these loan issues were floated and the close 329, 30.12.1993, p. 12. 267, 9.11.1995, p. 46. 280, 2.10.1999, p. 3. olnln links which exist between Charbonnages de France and the French authorities suggested that the loan issues floated by the company were tacitly guaranteed by the French State. The letter of formal notice in particular stated that the financial position of Charbonnages de France does not allow it to borrow on the financial market on the basis of ordinary law without at least a tacit guarantee from the State. Charbonnages de France has planned to cease all mining activity in 2005. By that date, it is not merely unlikely that it will have repaid the loans currently outstanding, but it may have issued others, both because the mining operations are structu- rally loss-making and to repay previous loans. The Commission therefore considered that these loans constituted aid within the meaning of Article 1 of Decision No 3632/93/ECSC. France confirmed the Commission's position in a letter of 26 October 1999 in reply to the letter of formal notice of 26 July 1999 and expressly stated that the loan issues floated by Charbonnages de France could be regarded as issued on behalf of the French State. Several convergent factors also suggest the existence of an implicit guarantee by the French State for the loan issues floated by Charbonnages de France, in particular the fact that, as indicated by the French authorities in their letter of 26 October 1999, the status of CDF (Charbonnages de France) as a public undertaking means its rights and obligations are transferred to the State once it has been wound up and will entail the French State taking over the undertaking's debt when it is wound up after mining activities cease in 2005.