The 2003 Harbour Act mintaszakaszok

The 2003 Harbour Act. In 2003, a new Harbour Act No 61/2003 was adopted. This Harbour Act, which was not notified to the Authority, contained changes in particular with regard to the permissible operating forms of harbours and, hence, which harbours come within the Act. Article 8 provided that: ‘A harbour may be operated as:

The 2003 Harbour Act. In 2003, Act No 61/2003 replaced Act No 23/1994. In the new Harbour Act, the provisions on State funding of harbour constructions were changed. As outlined above, the current provisions provide for two distinct measures, namely payments by the Treasury in relation to certain harbour constructions (Article 24) and damage compensation granted by the Harbour Improvement Fund (Article 26 of the Act) for facilities covered by Article 24(2)(a) and (b) of the Act.

The 2003 Harbour Act. The 2003 Harbour Act has not been notified to the Authority. The 1994 Harbour Act, which that Act replaced, was the subject of an appropriate measures proposal by the Authority in its Decision No 51/97/COL and was authorised on the condition that individual projects would be notified. It will now have to be assessed whether the amendments in the 2003 Harbour Act, in so far as they constitute State aid within the meaning of Article 61(1) of the EEA Agreement, must be treated as new aid within the meaning of Article 1(c) of Part II of Protocol 3 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement. In this respect, the support for the use of pilot vessels and for quay installations, together with the damage compensation for those facilities, must be examined. According to Article 4 of the Authority's Decision No 195/04/COL, a purely formal or administrative change does not affect the status of existing aid. However, a tightening of the criteria for the application of an authorised aid scheme, a reduc- tion in aid intensity or a reduction of eligible expenses, qualify as new aid (Article 4(2)(c)). In its ruling in Namur-Les Assurances, the Court of Justice held that ‘[…] the emergence of new aid or the alteration of existing aid cannot be assessed according to the scale of the aid or, in particular, its amount in financial terms at any moment in the life of the undertaking if the aid is provided under earlier statu- tory provisions which remain unaltered. Whether aid may be classified as new aid or as alteration of existing aid must be determined by refe- rence to the provisions providing for it’ (1).

The 2003 Harbour Act. During the formal investigation procedure, the Authority will investigate whether the newly introduced support for pilot vessels and for quay installations can, to the extent that it is found to constitute aid, be justified under Article 61(3)(c) of the EEA Agreement.