Answer given by Executive Vice-President Vestager on behalf of the European Commission
6.5.2022
In state aid proceedings, the Commission interacts with national authorities. The Commission does not however prescribe how the national authorities should organise their work and who should prepare reports on the implementation of the restructuring plans on their behalf.
In the case at hand (SA.36133)[1], it appears that the Croatian authorities tasked ‘Hrvatska brodogradnja — Jadranbrod d.d.’[2], headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia, with the monitoring of the restructuring of the Croatian shipyards.
According to the information at the disposal of the Commission, this entity is incorporated as a limited liability company under Croatian corporate law ‘to provide expert advice and act as a supervisory and reporting body towards the Croatian Government and European Commission (…)’ and is as such not a government agency.
- [1] SA.36133-Pre-accession Croatia — Restructuring of the shipbuilding companies Brodograđevna industrija Split, dioničko društvo, Split and Brodosplit-Brodogradilište specijalnih objekata, društvo s ograničenom odgovornošću, Split, https://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/case_details.cfm?proc_code=3_SA_36133
- [2] https://hb.hr/