L 129/26 Official Journal of the European Communities 30.5.2000 COMMISSION DECISION of 15 February 2000 on the State aid which Belgium is planning to grant to NV Sidmar (notified under document number C(2000) 517) (Only the Dutch and French texts are authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2000/360/ECSC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, and in particular the first subparagraph of Article 4(c) thereof, Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, and in particular Article 62(1)(a) thereof read in conjunc- tion with Protocol 14, Having regard to Commission Decision No 2496/96/ECSC of 18 December 1996 establishing Community rules for State aid to the steel industry (%), Having called on interested parties to submit their comments pursuant to the provisions cited above (?) and having regard to those comments, Whereas: I. PROCEDURE (1) By letter dated 21 October 1998, Belgium notified the Commission of aid that the Flemish authorities intended to grant to the steel company NV Sidmar for six invest- ment projects for environmental protection. By letters dated 31 May and 23 June 1999, it provided the Commission with further information. (2) By letter dated 11 August 1999, the Commission informed Belgium that it had decided to initiate the procedure laid down in Article 6(5) of Decision No 2496[96/ECSC (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Steel Aid Code’) in respect of the aid. (3)  The Commission decision to initiate the procedure was published in the Official Journal of the European Communi- ties ). The Commission invited interested parties to submit their comments on the aid. (4 The Commission received comments from NV Sidmar. It forwarded them to Belgium, which was given the oppor- tunity to react; its comments were received by letter dated 10 December 1999. II. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE AID (5) NV Sidmar is a steel producer located in Gent, Belgium, in which Arbed SA, Luxembourg, has a majority holding. It produces ECSC flat products, such as hot-and () O] L 338, 28.12.1996, p. 42. () O] C 280, 2.10.1999, p. 29. () See footnote 2. (6) cold-rolled coils and coated and uncoated sheets. In 1997 it produced 4 137 000 tonnes of liquid steel and had a turnover of BEF 55814 million. As at 31 December 1997 it employed 6 005 people. The compa- ny's installations date from 1966, 1967 and 1972. The new investments consist in adaptations to those installa- tions in order to comply with new environmental stan- dards or significantly improve on them. The aid proposal consists of a grant of BEF 102 955 200 towards the cost of six investment projects that the company is to carry out in order to improve environmental protection. This amount repre- sents 15 % of the investment costs that the Flemish authorities consider eligible. The total cost of the invest- ments is BEF 953 500 000, broken down as follows: (BEF) Dust collection at unloading crane 10 000 000 Treatment of filtrate from blast furnaces 27 000 000 Adjustments to blast furnaces No 4 59 000 000 Optimisation of industrial sewers 78 000 000 Improved dust collection at blast-furnace [ 27 500 000 loading sites Construction of circular cooler for sintering [ 752 000 000 plant No 2 Total 953500 000 The purpose of the ‘dust collection at unloading crane’ project is to reduce the impact of dust on surrounding areas when ships are unloaded. This is not a statutory requirement, but it will significantly improve environ- mental protection as dust emission will fall from 15 t/ year to 2 tfyear. The investment has no effect on production and all the costs relate solely to the objective of environmental protection. The ‘treatment of filtrate from blast furnaces’ project is aimed at optimising the operation of its existing water- purification system. Given that the company already complies with the requirements governing the discharge of wastewater into the canal even before carrying out