EU court fines Greece over Olympic Airways subsidy

Europe's highest court imposed a fine of 2 million euros along with extra daily penalties, on Greece on Tuesday for failing to recover state aid illegally granted to Olympic Airways.

The case relates to some 41 million euros of state aid injected into Olympic Airways as part of its unsuccessful restructuring and a yet uncounted sum of unpaid taxes, fees and social security contribution.

The lump sum fine was imposed for Greece's failure to comply with a 2005 court decision that the aid was illegal. The daily fines, set at 16,000 euros, relates to each day of delay in complying with the final ruling.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has long been embroiled in the long-running dispute with Athens over subsidies to Olympic. It had sought a daily fine of more than 50,000 euros.