Deutsche Post Wins Court Bid to Block Aid to Belgian Rival

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://news.businessweek.com/article.as ... A1T5LH9BDP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Post AG won its bid to block 297.5 million euros ($400.3 million) in state aid to Bpost SA, Belgium's state-controlled mail company, in a ruling by the European Union's top court.

The EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg today rejected a challenge by Belgium to an earlier Deutsche Post court victory that had blocked the state subsidies.

Belgium appealed after Deutsche Post, the world's biggest transporter of air and sea freight by volume, won a lower-court ruling to annul EU backing for the aid. The February 2009 ruling triggered an in-depth review by the European Commission into all Belgian aid to the national postal operator partly owned by CVC Capital Partners Ltd.

Both court decisions “focus on procedural flaws,” Bpost said in an e-mailed statement. “Today's judgment does not touch on the substance of the file, nor does it take a definitive position on the question of the repayment.”

“Bpost will continue to cooperate closely” with the commission “through submissions of required data and clarifications of open issues,” the company said.

Deutsche Post sued the Brussels-based commission in November 2003 after the regulator approved the capital injection by the Belgian government.

“We are happy that our legal position has been confirmed,” Dirk Klasen, a spokesman for Deutsche Post, said by telephone. “We hope that this means that the commission bears the judgment in mind when it looks at other instances of state aid.”

The case is: C-148/09 P, Belgium v. Deutsche Post and Others

[hans solo]

kinda fcuks rms and gvmt plans for us then

[Straight4ward]

Not sure that I'd be celebrating something that further jeopardizes our pensions.

[DGP1]

Not sure that I'd be celebrating something that further jeopardizes our pensions.

Why not, it's going to be stolen by somebody.............Government/EU/some shady business spiv who's managed to get themselves on the board.