Mol measures involved no state aid, says European Commission

Budapest, October 26 (MTI) – The European Commission concluded that Hungarian measures reducing mining fees for Hungarian gas and oil company Mol did not involve state aid within the meaning of EU rules, the EC said on Monday.

The decision reflects a judgment by the EU Court of Justice which in June annulled an EC decision of 2010 that the combination between a 2005 agreement between Mol and the government on mining fees and a 2008 amendment to the Hungarian Mining Act had conferred an unfair advantage to the company.

The Commission re-assessed the measures in light of the guidance provided by the Court and concluded that the measures involved no state aid.

The EC had previously claimed that the 2005 agreement, which fixed the rate of the mining fee for Mol, together with an increase in the mining fee later in 2008 constituted state aid incompatible with the common market. The Commission asked Hungary to recover that aid from Mol, which amounted to about 96.6 million euros for 2008 and about 6.6 millin euros for the next year.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters