Italy under investigation by the EU
July 19th, 2006
European Commission members have agreed that an investigation is necessary into the case of state aid granted by Italy to support its poultry industry, badly affected by falling sales after the recent bird flu outbreaks around the world. The plan was for the Italian government to buy 17,000 tonnes of poultry meat as well as other poultry products which were initially intended for human consumption, suspend tax payments and social security contributions and grant some sort of financial aid for loans to help convert and restructure poultry businesses, in the light of recent bird flu scares.
The European Commission considers these measures unnecessary and endangering the Community state aid provisions. There is an interval of one month where the Italian government is allowed to submit its comments back to the Brussels committee and afterwards any other interested party will be allowed to make comments, before the Commission will make a decision. The investigation is a result of the European Union’s strict and complex rules regarding state aid, initially designed to ensure that no government can use it to offer an unfair advantage to any single sector.