Opinion of Mr Advocate General VerLoren van Themaat delivered on 23 May 1985

1 Translated from the Dutch.

2 At the hearing the applicant produced a table drawn up in agreement with the Commission comparing its own and the Commission's figures on the grant of aids and reduction in capacity. That table, which forms part of the papers before the Court, substantially confirms the Commission's view.

3 According to the answer given by the Commission to a question put by me at the hearing, aids for continued operation as a proportion of the total amount of aid authorized from 1980 to 1985 roughly amount to one-third for Germany, a half for France and the United Kingdom, 70 % for Italy and as much as 80 % for Belgium. Accordingly, aids for continued operation as a fraction of total authorized aids appear as a rule to have increased considerably after 1982

4 The applicant's complaint thai the Commission's policy also took social considerations into account is in itself, I consider, unfounded in the light of Article 5 (2) and the third recital in the preamble. However, that does not warrant a departure from the conditions which arc expressly laid down in Article 5 (I).