EC announces Antwerp ‘state aid’ investigation

The investigation, confirmed in a press release from the EC, relates to the Deurganck Dock concession agreements for PSA Antwerp and Antwerp Gateway.

The Commission said that the terms of the concessions required a minimum amount of containers to be handled every year, but these minimums were not achieved between 2009 and 2012.

Under the agreements, the two operators were obliged to pay compensation to Antwerp Port Authority. However, instead of collecting the compensation due, in March 2013 the port authority retroactively revised the minimum tonnage requirements downwards. This significantly reduced the amount of compensation to be paid by PSA Antwerp and Antwerp Gateway, by around 80%, said the EC.

“Following a complaint from a competitor, the Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to examine whether a private investor would have accepted to reduce its compensation in a similar manner. If the operation was not carried out on market terms, it could constitute state aid as defined by EU rules,” it said.

“The Commission would then verify whether such aid could be authorised under state aid rules that allow member states to grant state aid for certain public interest goals.”

Because the port authority is fully owned by the city of Antwerp, the reduction in compensation would be regarded as a ‘public intervention’.

Under EU rules, public interventions in favour of companies can be considered free of state aid when they are made on terms that a private operator would have accepted under market conditions. If this principle is not respected, the intervention would be regarded as state aid.

However, the EC emphasised that the opening of the investigation “does not prejudge the outcome”.