Competition chief Monti spells out state aid reforms

Date: 09/10/2003

By Peter Chapman

MARIO Monti, the competition commissioner, plans to get tougher on ailing corporate giants like France's Alstom that are granted huge state handouts to meet restructuring costs.

In an exclusive interview with European Voice, the Italian spells out details of his proposed reforms for the rules on state aid. For instance, he wants to set strict quantitative limits so that companies undergoing restructuring must pay a large proportion of the final bill - using money they receive from selling assets.

"For large undertakings the threshold of this 'own contribution' should be significant and we are currently working on quantifying it," said Monti, adding that smaller firms would face a lighter regime.

The commissioner said this proposal would form part of strict new guidelines on 'rescue and restructuring', set to be in place before next summer's enlargement of the EU.

Bernard van de Walle, a partner with law firm Linklaters and Alliance, predicted Monti's plans would make state aid rules "much tougher and more objective".

See full interview in Business section