10. 6.1999 Official Journal of the European Communities L 145/27 COMMISSION DECISION of 11 November 1998 on aid for the INMA SpA shipyard under Italian Law No 564/93, converted by Law No 132/94 (notified under document number C(1998) 3584) (Only the Italian text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (1999/379/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular the first subparagraph of Atrticle 93(2) thereof, Having given the interested parties notice to submit their comments, and having regard to those comments, Whereas: By letter dated 27 May 1997 from the Italian Permanent Representative’s Office, registered by the Commission on 3 June 1997, the Italian Government notified the Commission of a plan to grant additional aid to the INMA shipyard for two liner conversion contracts. The notification was followed by a meeting between Commis- sion staff and officials from the Ministry of Transport and Shipping and the sending of a letter by the Italian author- ities on 8 July 1997. The Italian shipyard INMA, situated at La Spezia, nego- tiated two liner conversion contracts in 1994. The first, concluded on 19 August, was for the Regal Voyager, owned by St Thomas Cruises Limited (Bahamas), involving a total of some ITL 20 billion, and the second, concluded on 4 October, was for the Sally Albatros, owned by the Finnish shipping company Sally AB, involving a total of some ITL 93 billion. The two contracts have already received 4,5 % aid each, in line with the ceiling set by the Commission in 1994 for ship conversions. The aid was also notified to the Commission as part of the monitoring of shipbuilding aid provided for in Article 11 of Council Directive 90/684/EEC ('), as last () OJ L 380, 31.12.1990, p. 27. amended by Directive 94/73/EC (3, application of which was extended by Regulation (EC) No 3094/95 (°), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2600/97 (). The two shipping companies used the same broker, Simonship AB, to negotiate the contracts, and Simonship AB tendered widely among European shipyards, both within the Community and outside. The Community shipyards approached were: — Germany: HDW and Lloyd Bremerhaven, — Denmark: Reparationsvaerftet, — Spain: Astilleros Espafioles, — Italy: INMA, Fincantieri and T. Mariotti, — Netherlands: Wiltonfijenoord Drydock, — Portugal: Lisnave and Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo. Two Finnish and two Polish shipyards were also approached. Since, during the negotiations, the shipyard managers received letters from the broker Simonship informing them that the shipowners had lower tenders from the Finnish and Polish shipyards, an application was made to the competent Italian authorities for aid to be granted at a rate of 9 %. The application for a higher rate of aid for the two contracts is based on Article 4(5) of Decree Law No 564/93, which was converted by Law No 132/94 (herein- after ‘Law No 132/94). This states that if, in trying to obtain a ship conversion contract, a shipyard is in competition with one or more shipyards from countries not belonging to the European Community, the Minister may, with the prior agreement of the Commission of the European Communities, increase the rate of aid provided for in paragraph 1 (namely 4,5 %), without exceeding the rate provided for in Article 3(1) (namely 9 %), provided that the shipyard demonstrates that this increase in the level of aid is necessary to challenge the non-Community competition and to win the order. @) OJ L 351, 31.12.1994, p. 10. () OJ L 332, 31.12.1995, p. 1. () OJ L 351, 23.12.1997, p. 18.