19.10.2010 Official Journal of the European Union L 2741 II (Non-legislative acts) DECISIONS COMMISSION DECISION of 26 January 2010 on State aid C 56/07 (ex E 15/05) granted by France to La Poste (notified under document C(2010) 133) (Only the French text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2010/605/EU) THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (Y), and in particular the first subparagraph of Article 108(2) thereof, this presumed unlimited state guarantee was in force before 1 January 1958, the Commission applied the rules of procedure concerning existing aid in accordance with Article 1(b) of the Procedural Regulation (°). (3)  The Commission received the French authorities’ reply on Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic 24 April 2006. Area, and in particular Article 62(1)(a) thereof, Having called on interested parties to submit their comments (49 On 4 October 2006, in accordance with Article 18 of pursuant to the provisions cited above (2), the Procedural Regulation, the Commission called on France to withdraw, by 31 December 2008, the guarantee given, on all its liabilities, to La Poste by Whereas: virtue of its legal form. 1. PROCEDURE . . (5 On 6 December 2006 the Commission received a (1)  On 21 December 2005 the Commission approved the memgrapdum from the French authf)ri.ties .chgllenging transfer of the banking and financial business of the the findings presented by the Commission in its letter French Post Office (La Poste) to its subsidiary La of 4 October 2006. Banque Postale (}). In its Decision the Commission stated that the question of the unlimited state guarantee in favour of La Poste would be the subject of a separate proceeding. (6)  Following a meeting with the Commission department in On 21 February 2006, in accordance with Article 17 of Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 (%) laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (the Procedural Regulation’), the Commission informed the French authorities of its preliminary finding as to the existence of an unlimited state guarantee which resulted from the legal form of La Poste and which constituted State aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU, and it invited them to submit their comments. Inasmuch as charge of competition questions (DG Competition’), by letter dated 16 January 2007 the French authorities submitted to the Commission a draft amendment to the Decree implementing Law No 80-539 of 16 July 1980 on the penalties imposed in administrative matters and on the execution of judgments by legal entities governed by public law (°) (the Law of 16 July 1980’), namely Decree No 81-501 of 12 May 1981 adopted for the implementation of the Law of 16 July 1980 on the penalties imposed in administrative matters and on the execution of judgments by legal entities governed by public law () (‘the Decree of 12 May 1981’).