7.11.2006 Official Journal of the European Union L 307/213 COMMISSION DECISION of 26 April 2006 on State Aid which France is planning to implement for Euromoteurs (C 1/2005 (ex N 426/2004)) (notified under document number C(2006) 1540) (Only the French text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2006/747EC) 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 called on interested parties to submit their comments pursuant to the provisions cited above (!) and having regard to their comments, Whereas: 1. PROCEDURE (1) By letter registered as received on 5 October 2004, France notified the Commission of its intention to contribute an amount of €2 million to the restructuring of Euromoteurs. The case was registered as N426/2004. By letter dated 18 October 2004, the Commission asked for additional information concerning the notification. France replied by letter dated 1 December 2004. (2) By letter dated 19 January 2005, the Commission informed France that it had decided to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 88(2) of the Treaty in respect of the measure. The decision was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (*). The Commission invited interested parties to submit their comments on the measure. (3) The Commission received comments from the French authorities on 19 May 2005. A meeting between the French authorities and Commission representatives took place on 12 October 2005. The French authorities sent information to the Commission by letter dated 10 November 2005 and by email dated 31 January 2006. () OJ C 137, 4.6.2005, p. 16. () See footnote 1. 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE MEASURES 2.1. The recipient Euromoteurs S.A.S. (Euromoteurs’) has its origins in a former subsidiary of Moulinex responsible for producing electric motors intended primarily for the household appliances market. More precisely, in December 1999, Moulinex set up Compagnie Générale des Moteurs Electriques (‘CGME) in order to turn its motors production business into a subsidiary. In September 2001, Moulinex went into receivership, followed by CGME. When the SEB group (SEB’) acquired part of Moulinex in 2001, it did not take over CGME but instead concluded with the latter a four-year supply contract which enabled it to start up in business again. In January 2002, 12 executives from CGME established the private limited company Compagnie Financiére des Moteurs Electriques (COFIME), which acts as a consultancy and has a majority stake in Euromoteurs, which was formed in September of the same year. In September 2002, COFIME and Euromoteurs took over CGME’s assets. The judgment of the commercial court authorising the operation prohibited until September 2004 any economic layoffs or asset disposals. This prohibition runs counter to the purchasers’ original plan, which was to concentrate CGMEs means of production on one site instead of two and to dismiss more than half the workforce. Moreover, the company is faced with a sharp decline in sales due, in France’s view, to the poor state of the world economy, SEB’s shrinking order book and the falling dollar/euro exchange rate.