The EU Commission adopts a decision declaring that an aid scheme designed to cover the risk of loans for the construction and conversion of ships in Italian yards is incompatible with the Common Market

"Italian guarantee scheme for ship-finance: Commission signals thorough review of guarantee schemes"*Introduction On 6 April 2005 the European Commission, after an in-depth investigation, adopted a decision declaring that an aid scheme designed to cover the risk of loans for the construction and conversion of ships in Italian yards, is incompatible with the Common Market. The Italian authorities had notified to the Commission, in May 2001, the adoption of a Decree implementing the Shipbuilding Guarantee Fund (‘the Fund’), already formally established by law in 1997, but never operational. In April 2003, the Commission opened a formal State aid investigation procedure as it had doubts about the compliance of the aid with the specific State aid rules for the shipbuilding sector. This