Bank Burgenland - Commission refers Austria to Court for failure to recover illegal state aid
15 July 2009
The Commission had requested that Austria recover an estimated €41.5 million of illegal aid (plus interest) from the Austrian insurance group Grazer Wechselseitige (GRAWE), in the context of the privatisation of Bank Burgenland.
The Commission had requested Austria to recover an estimated €41.5 million of illegal aid (plus interest) from the Austrian insurance group Grazer Wechselseitige (GRAWE), in the context of the privatisation of Bank Burgenland. To date, Austria has not yet recovered the aid from GRAWE.
In March 2006, following a public tender, Land Burgenland sold the state-owned Bank Burgenland to GRAWE for €100.3 million. However, a Ukrainian/Austrian consortium had made a higher bid at €155 million.
In the absence of an objective justification for accepting a significantly lower price for the sale of Bank Burgenland, the Commission considered that the price difference between the two offers gave an unfair advantage to GRAWE over its competitors and constituted incompatible state aid that needed to be recovered.
© European Commission
