Press Release: State aid: Commission opens investigation into investment aid to German shipyards Rolandwerft and Volkswerft Stralsund

The European Commission on 22 February 2006 launched a formal investigation under EC Treaty state aid rules into proposed regional investment aid of around €5.8 million to two German shipyards, Rolandwerft and Volkswerft Stralsund. The Commission needed to verify that the aid was limited to the modernisation and upgrading of existing installations, as required by the rules governing state aid to shipbuilding, and that there would not be capacity increases in a sector cyclically suffering from over-capacity.