4.4.2003 Official Journal of the European Union L 88/39 COMMISSION DECISION of 15 January 2002 on State aid granted by France to Crédit Mutuel (notified under document number C(2001) 3956) (Only the French text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2003/216/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 the provisions cited above (!) and having regard to their comments, Whereas: I. PROCEDURE By letter dated 6 February 1998, the Commission informed the French authorities that it had decided to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 88(2) of the Treaty in respect of the advantages granted by the State to Crédit Mutuel through the Livret bleu savings system. The French authorities granted Crédit Mutuel exclusive rights in 1975 to distribute the Livret bleu. This decision to initiate proceedings followed the lodging of a complaint on 25 January 1991 by the Association francaise des banques (AFB), the Chambre syndicale des banques populaires (CSBP) and Crédit Agricole concerning the aid granted by the French State to Crédit Mutuel. The Commission had requested the first information concerning the Livret bleu in a letter dated 27 May 1991. In response to the questions raised in the letter initiating proceedings, the French authorities submitted a file to the Commission, by letter dated 8 April 1998. () OJ C 146, 12.5.1998, p. 6. G) The Commission decision to initiate proceedings was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (3. The Commission invited interested parties to submit their comments on the aid. Crédit Mutuel sent a letter to the Commission on 18 June 1998 setting out arguments to reject the description of the measures covered by the proceedings as state aid, together with an analytical account file concerning the Livret blew. A number of interested parties also submitted their comments to the Commission (see Section III). The complainants sent four additional written statements to the Commission by letters dated 29 October 1999, 16 May 2000, 16 October 2000 and 19 January 2001. Given the file submitted by Crédit Mutuel, and in particular the analytical accounts relating to the Livret bleu which concluded that not only did the Livret bleu system not result in excess compensation of the costs paid by Crédit Mutuel, but in fact involved a net cost for the latter, the Commission decided to conduct an audit of the Livret bleu analytical accounts. For this purpose, on the basis of an invitation to tender, it recruited a British consultant, Littlejohn Frazer (hereafter referred to as ‘the consultant), specialised in accoun- tancy and auditing, together with two French accounting consultancies, Auditec and Scacchi. The audit started in November 1998 and continued up until 13 December 1999. Crédit Mutuel sent a memo to the Commission on 21 July 1999 contesting the provisional conclusions  produced by the consultant. The consultant's final report was submitted to the French authorities and to Crédit Mutuel for examination on 10 (3 See footnote 1.