The Normal Court docket of the European Court docket of Justice dominated that the EU government ought to have investigated sure issues in regards to the monetary help for the Dutch-French aviation consortium extra completely. The Fee had wrongly assumed that solely KLM would profit from the Dutch help and Air France solely from the French help, whereas they fall below an umbrella group. This made the help granted illegal.
After new investigation, the European Fee states that the state help was additionally so as if Air France-KLM as a complete had been the beneficiary. In that case too, the help complied with the briefly relaxed guidelines for state help, which gave member states the chance to restrict the financial injury brought on by the corona disaster. For instance, Air France-KLM didn’t expertise main monetary issues in 2019, the final 12 months earlier than the pandemic. The emergency loans have been subsequently clearly corona-related.
The European Fee appealed the verdicts, and the Netherlands joined in. Air France-KLM additionally challenged the selections on the EU’s highest court docket.
For KLM, the monetary penalties of the unfavorable verdict in February appeared restricted. The airline had already repaid the state help that had been paid out within the type of a mortgage in June 2022. In April 2023, Air France had repaid all the help.
Air France-KLM says it welcomes the information. In line with the airline, the choice reaffirms that the help measures of the French and Dutch governments throughout the corona pandemic have been in keeping with European guidelines.
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