L 32/76 Official Journal of the European Union 6.2.2007 COMMISSION DECISION of 26 September 2006 concerning the State aid granted by the Netherlands to Holland Malt BV (notified under document number C(2006) 4196) (Only the Dutch text is authentic) (2007/59/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu- nity, and in particular the first subparagraph of Article 88(2) thereof, Having called on interested parties to submit their comments (*) pursuant to the provision(s) cited above and having regard to their comments, Whereas: L PROCEDURE (1)  The measure was notified in accordance with Article 88 (3) of the EC Treaty by letter of 31 March 2004, registered on 6 April 2004. (2) Byletters of 1 June 2004, 12 August 2004 and 16 February 2005, the Commission asked the Netherlands for further information. By letters dated 5 July 2004, 17 December 2004 and 15 March 2005, registered as received on 7 July 2004, 3 January 2005 and 23 March 2005 respectively, the Netherlands replied to the Commission’s requests. (3) By letter dated 5 May 2005, the Commission informed the Netherlands of its decision to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 88(2) of the Treaty concerning this aid measure. (4) The Commission decision to initiate the procedure was published in the Official Journal of the European Commu- nities (). The Commission requested the interested parties to submit their comments on the aid measure in question. (5) By letter dated 10 June 2005 the Netherlands submitted a series of comments. (6) The Commission received comments from interested parties. It forwarded them to the Netherlands, which was given the opportunity to react; the Netherlands’ comments were received by the Commission by letter dated 14 October 2005. O] C 154, 25.6.2005, p. 6. See footnote 1. —_—— > = 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE AID MEASURE (7)  The Netherlands has decided to grant a subsidy to Holland Malt BV under a regional investment scheme ‘Regionale investeringsprojecten 2000’ (hereinafter called the IPR scheme). The regional investment scheme was approved by the Commission in 2000 (%); on 18 February 2002 an amendment to the scheme was also approved (*), whereby the IPR scheme was applied to the sectors processing and selling agricultural products listed in Annex I to the Treaty. (8) The present case concerns a subsidy for an investment project of Holland Malt BV. Holland Malt BV, hereinafter referred to as ‘Holland Malt’, is a joint venture between the brewery Bavaria NV and Agrifirm, a cooperative association of cereal producers in North Netherlands and Germany. The subsidy is for building a malting plant in Eemshaven, in the municipality of Eemsmond. As a result of the investment, the various stages (storage and processing of malting barley and the production of and trade in malt) will be integrated in one chain. (9) The Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs has decided to subsidize 13,5% gross (10 % net) of the eligible investments of EUR 55 million, with a maximum of EUR 7 425 000. Because it concerns a subsidy for an investment project by an undertaking in the sector processing and marketing agricultural products mentioned in Annex I of the Treaty, and the eligible costs of the project are over EUR 25 million, the aid must be specifically notified to the Commission under point 4.2.6 of the Community guide- lines for state aid in the agriculture sector (°) (hereinafter referred to as ‘the guidelines). (10) The decision by Holland Malt to invest was taken after the Dutch government had committed itself to granting a subsidy by letter dated 23 December 2003. The commit- ment was entered into subject to approval of the aid by the European Commission. The building activities of Holland Malt in Eemshaven started in February 2004. The plant became operational in April 2005. (11) In initiating the procedure under Article 88(2) of the Treaty, the Commission had regard to the following: (*) Regionale investeringsprojecten 2000 (IPR 2000-2006), N 549/99. Approved on 17 August 2000 by letter SG (2000) D/106266. (% Wijziging Regionale investeringsprojecten 2000, N831/2001. Approved on 18 February 2002 by letter C(2002)233. () O] C 28, 1.2.00, p. 2.