The European Commission has opened an investigation to examine whether Portugal has applied the Madeira Free Zone (ZFM) regional aid scheme in compliance with the 2007 and 2013 Commission decisions approving it.

In particular, the Commission has concerns that tax exemptions granted by Portugal to companies established in the Madeira Free Zone are not in line with the Commission decisions and EU State aid rules.

As part of its standard monitoring of the implementation of State aid decisions, the Commission has carried out a preliminary assessment of how Portugal applied the ZFM aid scheme until its expiry at the end of 2014....