L 203/60 Official Journal of the European Communities 1.8.2002 COMMISSION DECISION of 12 March 2002 on the State aid which Germany is planning to implement for Flender Werft AG, Liibeck (notified under document number C(2002) 913) (Only the German text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2002/632[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 regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, and in particular Article 62(1)(a) thereof, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1540/98 of 29 June 1998 establishing new rules on aid to shipbuilding ('), Having called on interested parties to submit their comments pursuant to the provisions cited above, Whereas: I. PROCEDURE (1) By letter dated 20 October 2000, Germany notified the Commission of the aid that it intended to grant to Flender Werft, Liibeck. It provided the Commission with further information by letters dated 15 December 2000 and 15 February 2001. (2) By letter dated 18 April 2001, the Commission informed Germany that it had decided to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 88(2) of the EC Treaty in respect of the aid. (3)  The Commission decision to initiate the procedure was published in the Official Journal of the European Commu- nities (). The Commission called on interested parties to submit their comments. (4)  The Commission received no comments from interested parties. II. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE AID (5)  Germany plans to grant regional investment aid to Flender Werft AG, Libeck, under the approved joint Federal Government/Linder scheme for improving regional economic structures (Gemeinschaftsaufgabe: Verbesserung der regionalen Wirtschaftsstruktur) (). The aid is to be for investment in a new floating dock with a () OJ L 202, 18.7.1998, p. 1. () 0] C 191, 7.7.2001, p. 15. () 29th outline plan, State aid E 3/2001; acknowledgement of appro- priate measures communicated to Germany by letter D/50559 of 8 February 2001. lifting capacity of 20 000 tonnes. The yard would build the dock itself. The cost of the dock would be EUR 16,4 million and the amount of aid, EUR 869 000. (6)  The new dock is to replace the former floating dock, which had a lifting capacity of 16 000 tonnes. The old dock was sold and delivered to the new owner in February 2001. The proceeds of EUR 9,2 million have been used to finance the new dock. (7)  The recipient of the aid is the shipyard Flender Werft AG in Liibeck, Schleswig-Holstein, an area assisted under Article 87(3)(c) of the EC Treaty. The yard builds seagoing ships and currently has 780 employees. Besides shipbuilding, it also carries out ship repair. On the basis of man hours, ship repair represents around 5 % of its work. The yard also builds floating docks. (8)  In its decision initiating the procedure the Commission noted that, under Article 7 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1540/98 of 29 June 1998 establishing new rules on aid to shipbuilding (*) (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Shipbuilding Regulation’), aid may be allowed only for investment in upgrading or modernising yards with the objective of improving the productivity of existing instal- lations. It was the Commission’s opinion that the scope of Article 7 was restricted to the upgrading of existing installations in order to improve productivity and thereby boost the competitiveness of the yards concerned. The Commission therefore doubted whether replacing the old floating dock with a lifting capacity of 16 000 tonnes by a new one with greater lifting capacity could constitute modernisation or upgrading within the meaning of Article 7 of the Regulation. [Il. COMMENTS FROM GERMANY (99 Germany states that the ever increasing traffic in the Baltic sea makes it necessary to have sufficient capacity for ship repair in Litbeck, Germany’s largest Baltic port. Consequently, Flender Werft has concentrated in parti- cular on ship repair and has maintained the necessary (*) See footnote 1.