BRUSSELS, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- The European Commission is investigating French loans to a Finnish electricity producer for nuclear equipment that may have violated trade rules.
The Financial Times reports the Commission is looking at a $717.4 million loan from France, and German engineering partners, to Teollisuuden Voima, in order to buy equipment from the nuclear company Areva.
European Union rules ban government aid that gives a company a leg-up on competition by, such as raising capital easier than others.
"On the basis of current information available to it, the Commission considers that it cannot be excluded that the provision of such a guarantee...may have lowered TVO's financial cost below the levels corresponding to market conditions," the Commission said in a statement.
It's also looking at whether the loan gave the lenders an unfair inside track to winning the contract for constructing the Olkiluoto nuclear plant in Finland, the first new nuclear plan tin Europe since the Chernobyl disaster.
"The case raises complex technical and legal issues. I am eager to learn more about these issues from stakeholders, who will now have the opportunity to comment," said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.
