3.9.2008 Official Journal of the European Union L 23645 COMMISSION DECISION of 11 March 2008 on the State aid which Belgium is planning to implement for Volvo Cars Gent (C 35/07 (ex N 256/07)) (notified under document number C(2008) 832) (Only the Dutch and French versions are authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2008/709/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 (1), Whereas: (4) I. PROCEDURE The planned training aid for the Volvo car assembly plant in Ghent (Volvo Cars Gent, hereinafter VCG) was notified to the Commission by letter dated 4 May 2007. On 31 May 2007 a meeting was held with the Commission services. Following this meeting, Belgium submitted additional information by letter dated 6 July 2007. By letter dated 12 September 2007, the Commission informed Belgium that it had decided to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 88(2) of the EC Treaty in respect of the notified aid (the decision initiating the procedure). The decision initiating the procedure was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (?). The Commission called on interested parties to submit their comments. The Commission received no comments from interested parties. Belgium reacted to the decision initiating the procedure by letter dated 15 October 2007. On 23 October 2007 a () O] C 265, 7.11.2007, p. 21. () See footnote 1. meeting was held between the Belgian authorities, the beneficiary and the Commission. Documents were submitted to the Commission on that occasion. By letter dated 23 November 2007, Belgium submitted addi- tional information. The Commission requested clarifi- cation by letter dated 21 December 2007, to which Belgium replied by letters dated 8 January, 15 January and 16 January 2008. II. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT AS NOTIFIED ON 4 MAY 2007 The beneficiary of the aid would be VCG. This firm has been part of the Ford Motor Company (FMC) since 1999 and employs 5000 people. The training programme supported runs between September 2006 and September 2009 and is partially linked to the intro- duction of a new production platform — the European EUCD platform — which is the FMC standard for the production of mid-size vehicles (segments C and D of the car market). The introduction of this new platform will represent tangible investment of EUR 26,3 million. It will allow the plant to produce not only Volvo models, but also Ford and Jaguar models. Improving the plant’s flex- ibility in this way will contribute to anchoring Ford’s activities in Ghent and safeguarding jobs there. The notification of 4 May 2007 indicates that the training costs amount to around EUR 37 million. Since Commission Regulation (EC) No 68/2001 of 12 January 2001 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to training aid () limits the eligible part of the trainees’ salary costs to an amount equal to the sum of the other eligible costs, the eligible costs notified by Belgium were limited to EUR 19 million. As Ghent is in a non-assisted area, the maximum aid intensity is 50 % for general training and 25% for specific training. According to the notification of 4 May 2007, the Flemish Region (Vlaams Gewest) intends to grant EUR 6018 558,91 as ad hoc aid. In the notification of 4 May 2007, the training programme is divided into five parts, the last two being of limited size: () O] L 10, 13.1.2001, p. 20.