SICILY STATE AID
October 1st, 2001
BY ALAN OSBORNTHE EUROPEAN Commission has dashed the hopes of Sicilian wine-growers awaiting compensation from the Italian government for unused replanting rights. The island's regional government had planned to pay some two billion Lire, (about Euro 1 million), to the growers, whose rights had become worthless as a result of drought in 1988-1990. Brussels now says the aid is incompatible with the rules of the common organisation of the EU market in wine, because the offer of a grant was made too late - in 1995 - "insofar as it provides compensation for rights ...
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