The EU commission continues the investigation on the fiscal advantages granted by the Greek authorities to COSCO Pacific



The EU commission has sped up Greece to introduce additional information on the tax rebate granted to COSCO Pacific in quality of concessionaire of the Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT), container terminal that the Chinese terminalista group manages in the port of the Pireo from on October 1°, 2009 ( on June 25, 2008 and 1° October 2009), fiscal advantages that Brussels considers constitute aids of State.

The EU commission has remembered that such relief is granted to the Piraeus Container Terminal, society integrally controlled from COSCO Pacific, after the conclusion of the contest with which the concession of the harbour terminal is assigned. In particular, the agreement between PCT and the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) are ratified with the law 3755/2009 that to article 2 establishes fiscal advantages to PCT advantage and to article 3 it guarantees that the investments of PCT previewed from the concession contract are subject to a specific regime of investment protection foreign countries previewed from decree legislative 2687/1953.

The EU commission inquires on this case from 2009, year in which has received denunciations regarding the tax rebate and to other forms of support granted to PCT that they are introduced by the prefect of the Pireo, from the federation of the workers of the Greek ports and from the International Dockworkers Council (IDC). Up to now the Greek authorities have replied that such measures do not constitute aids of State.

In the answers sent to Brussels with respect to the possible distortion of the market caused from such measures, the EU commission has announced that the Greek authorities have supported that the main competitors of the port of the Pireo are situated in nations put forward on the basin oriental of the Mediterranean that are to out of the European Union, as the ports Egyptians, the Israeli port of Haifa, the Turkish port of Istanbul and the Syrian port of Lattakia, and that the single ports EU that can be considered competitor of the Pireo they are the Rumanian port of Constanta, the Bulgarian port of Vahrn and the adriatic ports of Italy and ofSlovenia. However - second the Greek authorities - the ports of the Black Sea are not in competition with the port of the Pireo because of their positioning to beyond the Strait of the Bosforo and the competition between the port of the Pireo and the Italian and Slovenian ports on the Adriatic is considered insignificant, so much so that these last ones cannot be considered concurrent of the Greek port.

Last July, to conclusion of the first phase of investigation on the case, the EU commission has established that the differences between the initial agreement and the definitive contract of concession sign from PCT and PPA do not constitute aids of State, as they do not confer an advantage to a concessionaire neither involve a variation of the value of the contract, so as do not constitute aid of State relative the fiscal measure to the exemption from the tax on social yield for the goods, the works and the services acquired from the concessionaire outside from Greece, while - according to Brussels - the other fiscal advantages granted to PCT would constitute aids of State. With regard to this last EU commission it has demanded additional information to Greece.