Following a complaint, the European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether public measures in favour of the state-owned Portuguese railway maintenance company EMEF gave the company a selective advantage over its competitors, in breach of EU state aid rules. EMEF is a subsidiary of Comboios de Portugal (CP), the state-owned Portuguese passenger rail operator.
In 2015 the Commission received a complaint from a competitor alleging that EMEF continuously received illegal financial support from CP. According to the complaint and information received from Portugal, EMEF appears to have received public support worth around €90 million since 2005 from CP in the form of capital increases, loans and guarantees.
At this stage, the Commission has concerns that the measures in favour of EMEF were not granted at market conditions and may therefore have given EMEF a selective advantage over its competitors.
The Commission will now investigate further to find out whether its initial concerns are confirmed or not.
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