When is State Aid Not State Aid?1

Mark Wallace European Union

The European Commission has decided that the Italian Government was legitimately able to give €1 billion to a steel maker and €700 million to a coking plant.

The Commission had earlier decreed that the scale of investment meant illegal state aid, but after the Italian Government appealed to the European Court of Justice, the Commission was forced to look again.

The review uncovered dust emissions, coke oven doors that wouldn’t seal hermetically, Victorian-era style cleaning, leaky pipes and dodgy brick work. As such, the level of financial input improved the quality and safety of the plant, so state aid was fine.

The lesson that emerges will not have been missed by plant owners and their lawyers in Eastern Europe. Go Green, go Health and Safety, and tax money awaits.

Mark Wallace

Mark is a writer and political campaigner, ardent libertarian and eurosceptic.

Follow @wallaceme

K Lidington

Politics is the crafting of comments and forging of allegencies for political ends (usually the promotion or survival of the politician concerned). There are no principles involved, just opportunities. No ‘greater good’ is at stake, just personal advantage. Accept this and everything said, published and promoted takes on a new hue. Once you accept that nothing you hear is what is made out to be, you can start to understand the issues being discussed.