Deutsche Post DHL has rejected the European Commission’s decision to broaden a state aidinvestigation as ‘baseless’.
The Commission announced yesterday that a new aspect was being added to the state-aid inquiryinitiated in 2007 against the Federal Republic of Germany after it had collected additionalinformation about civil servant pensions.
In the inquiry, the Commission is examining whether Deutsche Post AG and its predecessor,Deutsche Bundespost, received excessive compensation for the universal postal service from thegovernment budget from 1989 to 2007.
It is now also examining regulations on civil servants’ pensions, in particular subsidies by theGerman government to cover the costs of pensions for Deutsche Post employees with civil servantstatus. The Commission said Germany had authorised an increase in letter prices specifically tocover the pension costs.
In response, Deutsche Post DHL claimed there was no basis for the Commission’s decision toexpand the scope of the inquiry on state aid. The company said it would review the complaint andthen comment on the finding, as it has done in the past.
The EU Commission has already conducted a thorough investigation of civil servant pensions inthe past, DP DHL pointed out. In a state-aid decision issued in 2002, the Commission was unable todetermine the payment of any illegal state aid regarding the pension issue. The facts underlyingthe case have not changed in recent years, the company added.
