On 19 August 2016, the European Commission issued announcements inviting comments on the illegal State aid investigations into the corporate tax exemptions granted under Belgian and French law to ports' economic activities. The Commission opened the investigations on 8 July 2016 due to inaction by both Belgium and France to comply with an initial request in January 2016 that the exemptions be abolished.

Click the following links for the Belgium announcement and the France announcement, which each contain a summary of the issues and the text of the original letters initiating the investigations.

Comments are due within one month of the date the announcements were published, and will be communicated with the respective countries.