COMPATIBILITY OF THE AID. 3.2.1. Application of Article 107(3)(b) TFEU
COMPATIBILITY OF THE AID. In the Authority's view, the aid measures do not comply with any of the exemptions provided for under Article 61(2) or (3)(a), (b) and (d) of the EEA Agreement. Therefore, it needs to be assessed whether the aid could be justified under Article 61(3)(c) of the EEA Agreement. Under this provision aid may be declared compatible if ‘it facilitates the development of certain economic activities or of certain economic areas, where such aid does not adversely affect trading conditions to an extent contrary to the common interest’. The Authority has doubts whether the conditions of this provision, which are to be read in conjunction with the Authority's Environmental Guidelines, are fulfilled. The Authority's 2001 Environmental Guide- lines required the EFTA States to bring their environmental aid schemes into line with these guidelines before 1 January 2002. The Norwegian authorities accepted this commitment by letter dated 6 July 2001 (39). In the following assessment, the Authority will make a distinction between the Energy Fund system as noti- fied to the Authority and applied since 1 January 2002 (see section II 3.1 of this Decision) and the future changes envisaged by the Norwegian authorities which intend to make the support compatible with the EEA State aid provisions (see section II 3.2. of this Decision).
COMPATIBILITY OF THE AID. The Norwegian authorities have argued that the transactions do not contain aid, and have not put forward arguments concer- ning compatibility. However, after assessing the likelihood that State aid may be involved in the transactions described above, it has to be considered whether any aid involved in the transac- tions could be compatible with the EEA Agreement under Article 61(3)(a)-(c) EEA. In the case of the sale of title numbers 1/152, 1/301 and 1/630 to Grunnsteinen, the information available to the Authority does not seem to indicate that any aid was granted to promote the economic development of areas where the standard of living is abnormally low or where there is serious underemployment, to promote a project of common European interest or to facilitate the development of certain economic activities. More- over, any aid granted to the sports club would not seem to promote cultural development. Against that background, Article 61(3)(a)-(c) appears to be inapplicable. For the same reasons, any possible aid involved in the sale of title number 4/165 to Bryne Industripark and the sale of title numbers 2/70 and 2/32 to Bryne FK does not seem to be compatible with the functioning of the EEA Agreement by virtue of Article 61(3)(a)-(c).
COMPATIBILITY OF THE AID. 5.1. Possibilities to declare aid for housing purposes compatible Article 61(1) of the EEA Agreement sets out that state aid as a principle is prohibited. Article 61(2) and 61(3) provide, however, for certain exceptions from this general prohibition. The derogations in Article 61(2) of the EEA Agreement do not seem to be applicable to the aid in question, which is not designed to achieve any of the aims listed in this provision. In particular, the aid measure involved cannot be considered to fulfil the conditions of derogation specified in Article 61(2)(a) of the EEA Agreement, namely aid having a social character, granted to individual consumers and without discrimina- tion related to the origin of the product concerned. Likewise, the derogations in Article 61(3) of the EEA Agreement do not apply to the aid measure under investigation. In particular, the aid measure is not granted with the aim of promoting or facilitating the economic development of certain areas or of certain economic activities. Thus, the derogations in Article 61(3)(a) and (c) of the EEA Agreement in conjunction with the Regional Aid Guidelines are not applicable in this case. Furthermore, the aid measure under investigation is not given to promote the execution of an important project of common European interest or to remedy a serious disturbance in the economy of Iceland, there- fore Article 61(3)(b) of the EEA Agreement does not apply. The aid in question is not linked to any investment, but reduces the costs which HFF would normally have to bear in the course of pursuing its day-to-day business activities and is consequently to be classified as operating aid. Operating aid is normally not considered suitable to facilitate the development of certain economic activities or of certain regions as provided for in Article 61(3)(c) of the EEA Agreement, unless it is specifically envisaged by the Authority's Guidelines, which is not the case here. Aid for housing purposes may, however, be declared compatible with the EEA Agreement on the basis of Article 59(2). That would be the case if the aid would be limited to provision of services of general economic interest and if the other conditions of Article 59(2) of the EEA Agreement would be fulfilled.
COMPATIBILITY OF THE AID. 41. On the basis of the information currently available, the Commission has therefore formed the view that the measure as currently applied appears to constitute an operating aid in the meaning of Article 87(1) of the EC Treaty. This measure allows a company or registered branch holding the status of exempt company to be liable to taxation at a lower level than that applied to other companies.