Commission approves German aid to rape seed oil methylester pilot plant
The European Commission has approved German aid (State Aid C 32/94) of approximately 4.5 million DM for a "Rape seed oil methylester pilot plant". This plant will be constructed and operated by the Raiffeisen Hauptgenossenschaft Nord AG in Kiel, Germany, for the production of biodiesel. The production facilities are part of a European demonstration project for the production and use of biodiesel and the pilot plant also benefits from 30% Community support under the Community's AIR programme (specific RTD programme in the field of agriculture and agro-industry). National aid and Community support together originally represented 67% of the total investment costs for the plant. As such a high level of aid is not allowed for demonstration projects under Commission rules, investigation procedures were opened and the German government subsequently agreed to reduce national aid by one third from 6.4 million DM to 4.5 million DM. This reduced the total aid intensity to the acceptable level of 47%.
Countries
Germany