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Home Page > Archivio delle notizie > Notizia Commission opens formal procedure regarding certain aid measures for public broadcaster RAI (Italy) and raises no objections to other measuresThe European Commission has decided to open the procedure pursuant to Article 88(2) EC Treaty regarding aid granted by Italy to RAI in the form of a capital increase from IRI in 1992, a tax exemption and a privileged loan granted by the public body Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. It has also decided to raise no objections to the reduction of the concession fee and two loans received in 1990 and 1997 from Cofiri and Cofiri Factor respectively (both controlled by IRI). This decision does not address the aid granted to RAI in the form of licence fee, as the Commission is not in the position, at this stage, to establish whether this can be considered as existing aid in the sense of Article 88(1) EC Treaty. The Commission does however doubt that the ad hoc measures are compatible with European Union (EU) State aid rules. In 1996, the private broadcaster Mediaset lodged a complaint against the financing scheme of RAI TV, alleging breaches of the Community State aid rules. In particular, Mediaset argued that the funding received by RAI from the State - in the form of licence fee, capital increases and ad hoc subsidies - is not proportional to the costs incurred by RAI for the fulfilment of its public service obligations.The Commission services started the investigation and exchanged several letters with the Italian authorities and the complainant in order to gather sufficient information on the matter. Moreover, the Commission enjoined Italy on 3rd February 1999 to provide all the information available and its observations on the existing nature of the aid. The Italian government submitted its observations and other information at the end of March and in May. The Commission had two doubts regarding the 1992 capital increase and the other measures mainly introduced by the so-called "Decreto Salva RAI": - First, whether the funding of RAI could be considered as existing aid in the sense of Article 88(1) EC Treaty. In particular, Italy might have introduced the licence fee before the entry into force of the Treaty. On the basis of the information provided, the Commission has not yet reached a conclusion as to whether the licence fee can be considered as existing aid. However, it has concluded that the other ad hoc measures are new measures given that they were not foreseen in any law pre-dating the entry into force of the Treaty or the liberalisation. - Second, whether any of the new measures constitute State aid. The Commission's economic analysis showed that only the exemption for the income taxes on the re-evaluation of its assets in 1993, the capital increase granted by IRI in 1992 and the loan granted by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti in 1995 constitute State aid within the meaning of Article 87 EC Treaty. The other measures (i.e. the reduction of the concession fee from ITL 154 to 40 billion, the concession of a loan by Cofiri in 1997 and a factoring loan granted by Cofiri Factor in 1990) do not constitute State aid as they did not provide any economic advantage to RAI. This procedure does not prejudge the Commission position regarding the nature of the licence fee. However, given that the measures taken pursuant to the "Decreto Salva RAI" are new aid and that compatibility with EU rules is in doubt, the Commission has the obligation to open the formal procedure under Article 88(2) EC Treaty.
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