§ Sir Anthony Meyerasked the Secretary of State for Industry what proceedings have been taken by the European Commission against companies who have exceeded their steel production quotas; how many companies have had proceedings taken against them in each quarter since the state of manifest crisis was declared; and what fines have been imposed on each company.
§ Mr. ButcherSince the introduction of mandatory quota arrangements under article 58 of the ECSC treaty in October 1980, the Commission has opened infringement proceedings against companies alleged to have breached their quotas.
(a) The number of companies in each quarter fined for exceeding their quotas is as follows:
Quarter 4 1980 *2 1 1981 4 2 1981 7 3 1981 9 4 1981 1 *This includes one company fined for failure to declare production. (b) The fines imposed on the companies concerned are set out in the following table.
(c) It is understood that a number of further proceedings are still in progress. Information on proceedings that have been closed without fines being imposed is not readily available.
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Company Country Fine ECU £ Sterling Acciaierie & Ferriere Hanil Italia Italy 209,962 128,560 Acciaierie & Ferriere Stefana fu Girolamo Italy 48,450 29,666 Alfer Italy 180,150 110,306 Busseni Italy 514,875 315,258 Ferriera di Roe Volciano Italy 75,900 46,474 Finsider Italy 3.919m 2.4m IRO Spa Industrie Reunite Oddesi Italy 374,925 229,567 Lucchini Sidenirgica Italy 411,600 252,023 Metalgoi Italy 101,850 62,363 Metallurgica Rumi Italy 334,518 204,825 San Carlo Italy 165,570 101,379 Klockner Germany 33.374m 20.435m Krupp Stahl Germany 717,225 439,157
Company Country Fine ECU £ Sterling Otto Wolff Germany 355,635 217,755 Thyssen Germany 288,825 176,874 Usines Gustave Boel Belgium 193,575 118,526 Usinor France 641,700 392,913 Estel Netherlands 3.655m 2.238m Notes:
(1) Transformazione Industriale Metalli (Italy) were fined 3,000 ECU (£1,837) for failure to declare production.
(2) The overall number of companies fined does not tally with the total of fines per quarter since some companies were fined for overproduction in more than one quarter.
(3) The ECU has been converted at the rate prevailing on 8 February (1 ECU = £0.6123) not that prevailing at the dates on which the fines were levied.