Procedural requirements. Pursuant to Article 1(3) in Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveil- lance and Court Agreement, ‘the EFTA Surveillance Authority shall be informed, in sufficient time to enable it to submit its comments, of any plans to grant or alter aid (…). The State concerned shall not put its proposed measures into effect until the procedure has resulted in a final decision’. Title number 4/165 and title numbers 2/70 and 2/32 have been sold under legally binding sales contracts and the titles have been transferred in the land register. The measures must there- fore be deemed to have been put into effect. As for the sale of title numbers 1/152, 1/301 and 1/630 to Grunnsteinen, the titles have not yet been transferred in the land register. However, a legally binding contract has been entered into, from which the municipal authorities cannot withdraw without incurring financial consequences. Thus, no further formal measures are required for the buyer to receive the economic benefit of the transaction, and it must therefore be deemed to have been put into effect.
(1) Unlawful aid or existing aid, under, respectively, Section III and V of Part II of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement.
(2) Section II of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement. These transactions have not been notified to the Authority. To the extent that these transactions involve State aid, it can be concluded that the Norwegian Government has not respected its obligations pursuant to Article 1(3) in Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement.
Procedural requirements. Pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveil- lance and Court Agreement, ‘the EFTA Surveillance Authority shall be informed, in sufficient time to enable it to submit its comments, of any plans to grant or alter aid. […]. The State concerned shall not put its proposed measures into effect until the procedure has resulted in a final decision’. Where the final decision of the Authority is negative, i.e. the aid is found to be incompatible with the functioning of the EEA Agreement, any aid paid out in breach of the standstill obliga- tion in Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement will be subject to a recovery order by the Authority.
Procedural requirements. Pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveil- lance and Court Agreement, ‘the EFTA Surveillance Authority shall be informed, in sufficient time to enable it to submit its comments, of any plans to grant or alter aid. […]. The State concerned shall not put its proposed measures into effect until the procedure has resulted in a final decision’. The Norwegian authorities have not notified the Authority of any measures taken in relation to the support granted to house-
(1) NTF-report 2005:2.
(2) ECON report 2007-040. holds' purchase of pellets stoves, heat pumps in water-born heating systems and control systems for electricity saving. Therefore, in the event that the Authority comes to the conclu- sion that the contributions given to households constitutes State aid within the meaning of Article 61(1) of the EEA Agreement, the Norwegian Authorities will be considered not to have respected the notification and stand still obligation pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement. The grant of State aid within the meaning of Article 61(1) of the EEA Agreement, which has not been notified, constitutes unlawful State aid within the meaning of Article 1(f) in Part II of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement. It follows from Article 14 in Part II of Protocol 3 the Surveillance and Court Agreement that the Authority shall decide that unlawful aid which is incompatible with the State aid rules under the EEA Agreement must be recovered from the benefici- aries unless it would be contrary to a general principle of law.
Procedural requirements. Pursuant to Article 1(3) in Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement, „the EFTA Surveil- lance Authority shall be informed, in sufficient time to enable it to submit its comments, of any plans to grant or alter aid. […]. The State concerned shall not put its proposed measures into effect until the procedure has resulted in a final decision”. The Norwegian authorities have not notified any measure relating to the funding of airline pilot education to the Authority. In particular, while the loan from Troms County may have been granted in accordance with the duly authorised Regional Loan Scheme, writing off that loan cannot be considered to fall within the conditions of the authorisation. The Authority therefore concludes that, in the event that the contested funding does indeed constitute aid within the meaning of Article 61(1) EEA, the Norwegian authorities did not respect their obligations pursuant to Article 1(3) in Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement.
Procedural requirements. Pursuant to Article 1(3) in Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveil- lance and Court Agreement, ‘the EFTA Surveillance Authority shall be informed, in sufficient time to enable it to submit its comments, of any plans to grant or alter aid. […]. The State concerned shall not put its proposed measures into effect until the procedure has resulted in a final decision’. The State Aid Guidelines, Chapter on State Aid elements in sales of land and buildings by public authorities, states inter alia that the EFTA States should notify any sale of land and buildings by public authorities that was not concluded on the basis of an open and unconditional bidding procedure and any sale that was, in the absence of such procedure, conducted at less than market value. The Norwegian authorities did not notify the sale of Lista air base to the Authority. If the doubts of the Authority as to the sale below market price were confirmed, this would constitute State aid within the meaning of Article 61(1) of the EEA Agree- ment. In that case the Norwegian authorities would not have respected their obligations pursuant to Article 1(3) in Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement. Furthermore, the Norwegian authorities have also indicated that the rent paid under the LILAS agreement was below market value, which could result in some elements of State aid being involved prior to the signing of the sales agreement. If such were the case, the rent at lower than market value was not noti- fied to the Authority. This would also constitute a breach of the Norwegian authorities' obligations pursuant to Article 1(3) in Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement.
Procedural requirements. Pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveil- lance and Court Agreement, „the EFTA Surveillance Authority shall be informed, in sufficient time to enable it to submit its comments, of any plans to grant or alter aid (…). The State concerned shall not put its proposed measures into effect until the procedure has resulted in a final decision”. By submitting notification of the scheme for the regional aid for the transportation of round wood forwarded with a letter from the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform, received and registered by the Authority of 31 October 2007 (Event No 449962), the Norwegian authorities have complied with the notification requirement. By not putting the scheme into effect before getting the approval by the Authority, the Norwegian authorities have complied with the standstill obligation. The Authority can therefore conclude that the Norwegian authorities have respected their obligations pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement.
Procedural requirements. (86) Pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3: ‘the EFTA Surveillance Authority shall be informed, in sufficient time to enable it to submit its comments, of any plans to grant or alter aid. […] The State concerned shall not put its proposed measures into effect until the procedure has resulted in a final decision’.
(87) The Norwegian authorities did not notify the HA to the Authority. Should the Authority therefore conclude that the Norwegian authorities have not respected their obligations pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3, there would be a breach of the standstill obligation, without prejudice to the application of the SGEI Decision as below mentioned.
Procedural requirements. Pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3, ‘the EFTA Surveillance Authority shall be informed, in sufficient time to enable it to submit its comments, of any plans to grant or alter aid (…). The State concerned shall not put its proposed measures into effect until the procedure has resulted in a final decision’.
Procedural requirements. The Norwegian authorities did not notify the renegotiation of the Hurtigruten Agreement to the Authority. The Authority therefore concludes that the Norwegian authorities have not respected their obligations pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3.
Procedural requirements. Pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement, ‘the EFTA Surveil- lance Authority shall be informed, in sufficient time to enable it to submit its comments, of any plans to grant or alter aid. […]. The State concerned shall not put its proposed measures into effect until the procedure has resulted in a final decision’. The Icelandic authorities did not notify the Authority of the above-mentioned measures in the form of exemption of the HFF from payment of the guarantee premium. The Authority therefore concludes that Iceland has not respected its obligations pursuant to Article 1(3) of Part I of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement.