¡Señor, qué país!

It turns out that, between 1997 and 2001, the Spanish government of the PP also illegally subsidized the shipbuilder Izar with €1,500 million which will now have to be returned to the government. Up to 20,000 jobs are now in jeopardy. In Andalucía, for instance, Izar employs 3,400 people and, indirectly, generates 14,000 additional jobs. Here's the European commission's May 12 press release:

Today the European Commission decided that aid provided to the public Spanish shipyards is not in line with EC rules on State aid to shipbuilding. The Commission has established that State holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), in 1999 and 2000, granted aid worth €500 million to the civil public shipyards that are today all owned by IZAR. The aid took the form of a capital injection, loans and a purchase price above market value. As the loans amounting to € 192.1 million to SEPI were paid back, the sum to be reimbursed will amount to € 308.3 million, plus interest. The Commission concludes that the above amount constitutes further state aid which, after the approval of a final restructuring package, can no longer be approved under the EU shipbuilding aid rules.

Here are the EU's rules for state aid. Since 1997, it is not allowed to subsidize shipbuilding in the EU but, in order to "mitigate the social impact" of this decision, the European Commission allows "accompanying measures" such as funding re-training of workers for other jobs. Here is a good article explaining the situation.
This is all fine and dandy, but so far we're talking about €500, not €1,500. After a little searching, I hit on this news report:

In addition, since May 2003 the Commission is investigating SEPI's capital injections into Izar in an amount close to €1,477 million after the creation of the latter, between 2000 and 2002.
Brussels knows that the Spanish public shipyard company received capital injections of €1,322 million in 2000, €105 million in 2001 and €50 million in 2002.
The Commission doubts that these injections conform to the state aid rules, which only allow subsidies to civilian shipyards which result in economic benefits unattainable through commercial means.
According to the Commission, the Government reported when the aid was awarded that it was intended to help build military ships. Based on this statement, the services of [competition Commissioner] Monti anticipate that the aid may be incompatible with European regulations.

That is, now we're talking almost €2,000 million. What is it with economic conservatives like Aznar and Bush, always talking about market liberalization and small government, and then illegally subsidizing domestic industries? I guess in this respect, too, Aznar is no different from Bush.

Good Lord, what a country!