No L 310/28 Official Journal of the European Communities 16. 11. 88" (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COMMISSION | \ COMMISSION DECISION S ' of 29 March 1988 on planned aid by the French Government for certain areas of Haute-Normandie, Franche-Comté and Sarthe, in the conversion centres of ‘Dunkirk, Le Creusot, Fos, Caen and the area of Roubaix-Tourcoing (Only the French text is authentic) (88/565/EEC) o THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing.the European Economic Community, and in particular the first subparagraph of Article 93 (2) thereof, Having given the parties concerned notice to submit their comments pursuant to Article 93, and having regard to those comments, Whereas : On 24 October 1986 the French Government, in accordance with Article 93 (3) of the Treaty, notified the Commission of a plan to retain for a further three years from 1 January 1987 the possibility of awarding exceptional regional planning grants (Prime d’aména-. gement du territoire’ — PAT scheme) in the following areas : — all the areas listed in Article 1 of Commission Decision 85/18/EEC of 10 Ogtober 1984 on the French regional planning grant scheme (Prime d’aménagement du territoire’) (!), i.e. the areas eligible for a regional planning grant until 31 December 1985 in the departments of Eure, Seine-Maritime, Franche-Comté and Sarthe, — the ‘conversion centres’ of Dunkirk, Fos, Caen, Le - Créusot and the- area of Roubaix-Tourcoing. The plan concerns the award in these non-assisted areas of exceptional regional planning grants (PATs) within the " () OJ No L 11, 12. 1. 1985, p. 28. meaning of Article 3 of Commission Decision 85/18/EEC “which provides for the award of such aid only until 31 December 1986, provided that any project involving investment of ECU 4 500 000 or more or to be awarded a grant at a nominal intensity-of 15 % or above is notified in advance to the Commission for approval. Following its social and economic analysis of the areas in question in accordance with the method for implementing Article 92 (3) (c) of the Treaty on regional aid, the Commission took the following decisions on 18 March 1987: . (a) to make no objection to the implementation of the aid in the formerly eligible areas in the arrondissement of Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), the conversion centres of Caen, Dunkirk and Fos and in the area of Roubaix- Tourcoing. The Commission took into account the persistent high level of unemployment (Le Havre, Roubaix-Tourcoing) and the unfavourable trend in industrial employment (Caen, Dunkirk, Fos), chiefly due to job losses in steel and shipbuilding ; (b) to open the Article 93 (2) pfocedure against the retention in the ‘exceptional’ PAT area of all the previously eligible areas in the departments of Eure, ~ Sarthe, Doubs, Territoire de Belfort and, in the department of Haute-Sabne, the previously eligible arrondissement of Vesoul and the conversion centre of Le Creusot, for the reason that none of these areas, except for the Haute-Sabne, have economic characte- ristics (level of structural unemployment and GDP per . inhabitant) making them eligible for regional aid. As regards the Haute-Sabne, with a GDP per inhabitant of 66 and therefore below the threshold value of 77,