Last year the Commission surprised the UK government by calling in the grant for scrutiny under its monitoring of state aid decisions. The funding will support a project to create additional capacity to recycle recovered paper and magazines of 321,000 tonnes per annum, an increase of over 30% in UK recycling capability.
The spokesman for Competition Policy Commissioner Mario Monti has now told letsrecycle.com: “The case has stirred a certain amount of interest and the Commission has received 19 comments from interested parties within the time
limit of one month of publication in the Official Journal.”
He explained that all of these comments have had to be forwarded to the UK, “which has to be given the opportunity to react. All of these comments and the UK Government's reaction have then to be evaluated.”
Evaluations
The spokesman said the evaluations take time but the decision could come within “a matter of weeks”.
Shotton – which is owned by Finnish paper giant UPM-Kymmene – has pressed on with construction of the new capacity even though there has been no clearance for the grant.
There have been some mixed messages from the company over the need for the funding for the expansion, but recently the company has explained that the grant was a factor in the decision to expand the plant now rather than later.
When the investigation into the proposed grant was announced, WRAP said it remains convinced of the “viability and strength of the case for clearance, and notes that support has been given to many similar schemes in other parts of the European Union, with as many as 17 schemes being approved in the past ten years.”
At that time, chief executive of WRAP, Jennie Price commented: “WRAP has and will continue to co-operate fully with the Commission in order to expedite this assessment. WRAP and UPM-Kymmene remain fully committed to the project, and will continue to work together to ensure that the momentum of this important environmental initiative is maintained.”
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