Otterman
Of course I understand the potential consequences of banks' failures....And as a businessman depending on having some loans renewed early next year if I want to stay in business, I just hope everything is going to calm down and we'll soon have business back to normal....If it doesn't, both my business and 24 peoples' jobs will go down the tubes through no fault of our own....
What I'm trying to point out is that the EU just seem to be so selective - a law is a law, no ? Just because the subject / aggressor / victim / whatever is considered to be a good / bad / indifferent / whatever citizen or corporate entity, you can't just say ' Let's ignore the law because we want to help / punish the alleged subject / aggressor / victim / whatever ' Imagine....
' Of course he's been found innocent by the jury, but everyone knows he did it so he's going to jail anyway '
Think OJ Simpson ten years ago - could the judge really have said and done this ? Of course not.....
So whatever your thoughts about whether AZ should or even deserves to survive is entirely your own opinion but opinion isn't the basis of law. I have my opinion and obviously you have yours as you have stated. But my understanding is that, legally, any company in an EU member state should not receive state aid to the extent that it would result in an unfair advantage against its competitors. That is, I believe, the law
But why are so many companies and organisations seemingly free to ignore this law without attracting the same sort of vitriol as shown here against AZ ?
Top of my ' I wonder why ' list are -
- Deutsche Bahn in Germany, state owned monopoly, use State funds to subsidise acquisitions and trading losses in subsidiaries throughout Europe...
- EDF in France, state owned, who use state funds to acquire other power companies around the world whilst failing to sort out their own problems with unions, new power stations under construction in France which are plagued with technical problems and years behind schedule, and the ongoing industrial relations problems from the proposed privatisation and the effect on its employees' T&C's...
- SNCF in France, state owned, state funded, who as well as buying more and more market share in the Logistics industry in Europe, also own numerous bus and coach companies which rarely fail to win public tenders to provide bus services to towns and cities throughout France at the expense of privately owned operators....
And the list could go on and on and on.....Seems the EU regularly turns a blind eye to these three and plenty of others, but bangs down on a selective basis....AZ and ( to unending amazement ) BA in our industry are typical examples of this one-eyed way the EU sees things...
And now it's the banks, who through their own greed and mismanagement, will be saved from collapse in total contravention of current EU law..
Sure - there are critical social issues here, so....Let's be seen to have governments work within the law by changing the law - in which case AZ ( and OA for that matter ) would be entitled to receive any state aid which the Italian taxpayers are prepared to continue paying.....Then, whether it or its management deserve to be baled out yet again, becomes a moral / business issue for Italians only, not something for non-elected politicos in Brussels to decide....
Maybe, just maybe, the quick fix would be for AZ to be bought by the Italian State Railways - the Italian government could then bankroll AZ as much as it wants on the evidence of what DB and SNCF are able to get away with...
But the problem is, of course, Berlusconi is trying to engineer AZ's survival purely for his own political benefit and for his close cronies to cash-in later - that is if they don't cash-in sooner through the switching of debt and loans from their own companies into AZ....
I'd like to think that this is the reason why the EU is taking this stance against yet another kiss of life for AZ - to stop this bunch of corporate gangsters, but I doubt it...