By Margit Feher
BUDAPEST--The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled
Thursday that Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU)
didn't receive state aid from the Hungarian government related to
its mining fees, a decision that allows the company to retain 96.6
million euros ($108 million).
The ruling ends an issue that MOL and the European Commission,
the EU's executive branch, have been at loggerheads over for
several years.
The Court of Justice ruled that an agreement in 2005 between the
Hungarian government and the oil company MOL relating to the
exploitation of hydrocarbon fields doesn't constitute state aid.
The court said the combination of that agreement and the increase
in the rate of mining fees didn't confer a selective advantage on
MOL.
The commission had claimed the 2005 agreement, which fixed the
rate of the mining fee for MOL, together with the increase of the
mining fee had the effect of favoring MOL over its competitors and
therefore constituted state aid incompatible with the common
market. Consequently, the commission asked Hungary to recover that
aid from MOL, which amounted to about EUR96.6 million for 2008 and
about EUR6.6 million for 2009.
Write to Margit Feher at margit.feher@wsj.com; Twitter:
@margitfeher
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