The European Commission took Spain to court on Thursday for is five-year failure in recovering an illegal aid from a beneficiary company.
The Commission said the legal action was taken after Spain had failed to comply with its decision in 2002, which found an aid granted by the Spanish authorities to domestic company Refractarios Especiales constituted unlawful subsidy and had to be recovered from the beneficiary.
Under state aid rules of the European Union, Spain should have taken all the necessary measures available under national law without any delay, in order to effectively carry out the decision.
The EU's executive arm said almost five years after the adoption of the decision, only a fraction of the incompatible aid has been recovered and the Commission has indications that the Spanish authorities have not yet taken all the measures available under national law to recover the aid from the beneficiary.
"I sincerely regret that Spain has failed to recover the incompatible aid from Refractarios Especiales, but the Commission now has no option but to refer Spain to the court," said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.
Source: Xinhua
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