State aid, the EU Court rejects the recapitalization of Lufthansa (which has already returned the public money) – Corriere.it
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The EU Tribunal rejects the decision of the European Commission to approve the recapitalization of the German government by 6 billion euros to help Lufthansa overcome the pandemic. But the sentence comes months after the German carrier returned – with interest – public support. For this reason, insiders explain, the consequences could be void even in the absence of an appeal. Lufthansa is the airline of the homonymous group engaged in recent weeks in the negotiations for the entry into the minority in Ita Airways: the decision of the Court “has no impact” in the negotiations with the Italian Treasury.
The motivations
After the appeal of the low-cost Ryanair and the German carrier Condor, the court ruled that the EU Antitrust, in 2020, made several mistakes in giving the green light to public intervention in Lufthansa, along the lines of what was also done by others governments for their national airlines. According to the Luxembourg judges, the Commission was wrong “in particular to believe that Lufthansa was unable to find financing on the markets for all of its needs, by failing to demand a mechanism that would incentivize Lufthansa to buy back Germany’s stake as quickly as possible , denying the existence of significant market power of Lufthansa at certain airports and accepting certain commitments which did not guarantee the safeguarding of effective competition on the market”.
The reactions
The European Commission will be able to appeal to the EU Court of Justice. While a Lufthansa spokeswoman says the company “will analyze the sentence and decide on any further actions”. Lufthansa – he continues – «has already fully repaid the stabilization measures approved by the European Commission and around 92 million euros in interest. The two silent participations of the Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF) were repaid in October and November 2021. Last 2022, the ESF sold the Lufthansa shares acquired as part of the stabilization. The stabilization was therefore already completely finished before today’s court ruling.
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