30.10.2003 [ EN | Official Journal of the European Union L 282/25 COMMISSION DECISION of 17 February 2003 on the aid scheme implemented by Belgium for coordination centres established in Belgium (notified under document number C(2003) 564) (Only the French and Dutch texts are authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2003/755/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- munity, 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 the interested parties to give their views pursuant to the abovementioned provisions(!), and having regard to their comments, Whereas: I. PROCEDURE (1) In 1997 the Council (Ecofin) approved a code of conduct for business taxation (?) to tackle harmful tax competition and set up an ad hoc group to examine the tax measures to which the code of conduct applies. Following the undertaking in the code of conduct, the Commission issued a Notice in 1998 on the application of the state aid rules to measures relating to direct business taxation (%), in which it affirmed its commit- ment to the strict application of the rules according to the principle of equality of treatment. Against this background, the Commission, acting in accordance with the state aid rules, began its examination of the measures identified by the code of conduct group as harmful. The Commission would stress here the parallels between the work of the code of conduct group and the Community’s policy on state aid, both of which are aimed at eliminat- ing those measures that distort or threaten to distort competition in the common market. The Commission () O] C 147,20.6.2002, p. 2. ® 0JC 2 6.1.1998,p. 2. () 0] C 384,10.12.1998, p. 3. also notes the progress that has already been made towards this goal of eliminating harmful tax compe- tition, and in particular the steps taken by the Member States to abolish the measures identified by the code of conduct group as harmful, or at least to remove the harmful aspects of such measures. (2)  For further details of the procedural steps that preceded the Commission’s decision of 27 February 2002 to initiate the formal investigation procedure, the Com- mission would refer to the letter it sent to Belgium on this occasion (letter initiating the procedure) (). (3)  To recapitulate: Royal Decree No 187 of 30 Decem- ber 1982 provides for a tax scheme for approved coordination centres that derogates from ordinary tax law. On 2 May 1984 the Commission decided that it did not object to Royal Decree No 187 in the form it would take after amendment by the bill submitted to it by the Belgian Government on 3 April 1984. The Belgian Government was notified of this decision. However, the amendments actually introduced by the Belgian Government did not correspond to the bill submitted to the Commission. The Commission consequently initiated a formal investigation procedure on 12 Decem- ber 1985. Following amendments proposed by the Belgian Government and enacted on 4 August 1986, the Commission informed Belgium on 9 March 1987 that it had closed the procedure in the light of the amendments made by Belgium in order to make the aid scheme compatible with Article 92 of the EC Treaty (now Article 87). (*) See footnote 1.