Brussels announced on Wednesday the opening of an investigation into financial support measures given by France to Fret SNCF, a subsidiary of the chronically loss-making French National Railway Company, suspected of violating EU rules.
The European Commission “fears that certain measures in favor of Fret SNCF, granted during the period 2007-2019, do not comply with EU rules on state aid,” it said in a statement. During this period, the losses of Fret SNCF SAS, a 100% subsidiary of the French public railway group SNCF, were “continuously covered” by the parent company “through intra-group cash advances, which constitute public equity resources and state control”. “, explained the European executive.
Estimated cash advances between 4,000 and 4,300 million euros
The investigation will focus in particular on the cash advances made by the SNCF from the beginning of 2007 until its transformation into a commercial company on January 1, 2020. Their amount is estimated between 4,000 and 4,300 million euros.
The committee will also study the cancellation of the financial debt (for a total of 5,300 million euros, including cash advances) of Fret SNCF as well as a capital injection of 170 million euros in this subsidiary, at the time of its transformation in commercial company in 2019.
“L’ouverture d’une enquête approfondie donne à la France et aux autres tiers intéressés, y compris le bénéficiaire, la possibilité de faire part de leurs observations. Elle ne préjuge en rien de l’issue de l’enquête”, a souligné the Commission.
Source: BFM TV
