TELECOMMUNICATIONS: FRANCE TELECOM CLAIMS VICTORY IN EU STATE AID PROBE.

• Position: European Union. European Commission - Corporate reorganizations - Brief Article

France Telecom claimed vindication on March 23 from an independent report into state aid charges levelled at the French giant, the subject of a probe by EU competition watchdogs. France Telecom, which had to be rescued from a debt mountain with a government-orchestrated recapitalisation two years ago, has been under investigation by Brussels since January 2003.

The state-controlled telecoms giant said it had handed the EU executive, the European Commission, a copy of a three-volume report it commissioned by three independent experts into the state-aid charges. The specific charges rebutted by the report are that French authorities gave verbal support to France Telecom during the summer of 2002, when it was threatened with a massive liquidity crisis, amounted to a state aid.

The three experts included Sir John Bond, head of the HSBC banking group, along with former European Court of Justice judge Yves Galmot and former...