EU clears Alitalia rescue
February 6, 2015
The European Commission said on Friday that Italy's state-owned postal service did not violate EU law, when it pumped 75-million-euro ($85.3 million) into Alitalia in 2013 to help the airline stave off bankruptcy.
At the time, the bailout came under fire from rival International Airlines Group (IAG), whose carriers include Iberia and British Airways, which criticized the move as a surreptitious form of state aid.
Case closed
In its statement, the EU's executive branch dismissed the accusations, saying that the rescue did not violate the 28-member bloc's antitrust rules: "Poste Italiane carried out an investment under the same terms and conditions as two private operators who were in a comparable situation."
The Commission said the investment was made on market terms, concluding that "public interventions can be considered free of state aid within the meaning of EU rules when they are made on terms that a private operator would have accepted under market conditions."
Brussels added that it had closed the case after the AIG had not responded to its preliminary investigation.
The multimillion-euro lifeline allowed Alitalia to stay afloat long enough to find an international investor to right the capsizing company. Last year, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways bought a 49-percent stake in the carrier, promising a turnaround by 2017.
pad/uhe (dpa, European Commission)