De Commissie geeft 3 miljoen aan Finse scheepvaartmaatschappij (en)

The European Commission i has authorised under EU state aid rules a Finnish aid to compensate the newly established shipping company Arctia Shipping Oy, for supplementary pension rights accrued by its staff before Finland opened up the ice-breaking activity. The Commission considers this measure necessary to put the company on an equal footing with its competitors.

"The changes in the statute of the Finnish shipping company will ensure that the company is subject to all usual rules applicable to business activities, including bankruptcy legislation while remaining State-owned," Joaquín Almunia i, Commission Vice-President in charge of competition policy, said.

In line with previous decisions involving incumbent firms in liberalised markets, the Commission considers the Finnish aid to Arctia Shipping Oy to be in line with EU state aid rules, because it's sole purpose is to ensure a level playing field in terms of pension costs between the company and its current, potential and future competitors. It is therefore in line with Article 107(3)(c) of the EU Treaty, that allows aid for the development of certain economic activities, provided it does not unduly effect trading conditions.

In autumn 2009 Finland decided to incorporate its State Shipping Enterprise "Finstaship" by establishing company Arctia Shipping Oy, which remains a State-owned company. In this context, the issue of accrued pension rights of Fintaship's employees had to be solved.

The concerned employees accrued supplementary pension rights prior to 31 December 1994 while still belonging to the Finnish Maritime Administration, when their activities, such as icebreaking and archipelago scheduled passenger and vehicle transportation in the Finnish Gulf, were directly financed from the budget. As those employees would not be able to obtain their supplementary pension rights from the State Pension Reserve when they retire as "private law" employees, the Finnish government decided to transfer the responsibility for their supplementary pension rights to Arctia Shipping Oy together with the corresponding financing.

This financing is to cover the cost of a private insurance contract. Following a competitive tendering procedure organised for life insurance companies, the relevant cost is fixed at €3.2 million.

The opening up of the Finnish icebreaking services market started in 2004 when the icebreaking contracts were first put up for open tenders.