‘5a. For the purposes of the application of Title II of the basic Regulation, “registered office or place of business” shall refer to the registered office or place of business where the essential decisions of the undertaking are adopted and where the functions of its central administration are carried out.

14. The Commission therefore considers that, if Ferring is upheld, a text, the legal form of which would be defined at the appropriate time, would still help to increase legal certainty, in particular as regards the methods for calculating compensation and the arrangements for selecting the firms to be entrusted with the operation of general economic interest services.

5. The CFI points out, however, that Article 86(2) of the Treaty contains a derogation for firms entrusted with the operation of services of general economic interest, " so that the grant of state aid may escape the prohibition laid down in Article 87 of that Treaty provided that the sole purpose of the aid in question is to offset the additional costs incurred in performing the particular task assigned to the undertaking entrusted with the operation of a service of general economic interest and that the grant of the aid is necessary in order for that undertaking to be able to perform its public service obligations under conditions of ec ...[+++]onomic equilibrium".

This aid must also cover the operating losses at production sites which will be closed as a consequence of the amalgamation of mines, namely "Auguste Victoria" and "Blumenthal/Haard" in 2001 and "Friedrich Heinrich/Rheinland" and "Niederberg" in 2002 (see recitals 16 to 21).

I am curious. When he talks about equivalent cost of seats, is he seriously trying to tell the House that a seat on a private jet is the same as an economy seat on a chartered flight?

So the only costs that are excluded are the head office and administration costs; they're ongoing.