Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné, in a written answer on 29 June 2026, declined to reopen the Commission's assessment of the €53 million public bailout of Spanish airline Plus Ultra, arguing that the matter is now subject to criminal proceedings in Spain and that the Commission cannot substitute itself for national judicial remedies. The answer effectively shields the Commission from revisiting a State aid decision taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, while leaving the Spanish courts and parallel investigations in France, Switzerland and the United States to determine whether the bailout was tainted by political influence or insider information.
The question was tabled by Dolors Montserrat (PPE, Spain), who pointed to the indictment of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for alleged criminal association, influence peddling, forgery and money laundering in connection with the bailout. Montserrat asked whether the Commission would review whether the aid was determined by interests linked to the sanctioned Venezuelan regime and whether access to inside information breached EU principles of equal treatment, good administration and transparency.
Séjourné's answer contains no concrete proposals, numerical targets or deadlines. It merely notes that the Commission takes note of the criminal proceedings but cannot comment on an ongoing judicial investigation. He adds that the original decisions granting or refusing individual aid under the recapitalisation scheme (State Aid SA.57659) were open to appeal in good time by any interested party, and that the Commission does not intend to take the place of competent judicial remedies for reviewing the acts of the Spanish administration.
the Commission refuses to reopen a closed State aid file, deferring entirely to national courts and parallel foreign investigations. No institutional follow-up is signalled; the Commission will not launch its own review or verification procedure. The answer impacts four main stakeholders: the Spanish judiciary, which now carries the full burden of adjudicating the case; the Spanish government, which is shielded from a second Commission probe; Plus Ultra and its competitors, who must await the outcome of national proceedings without EU-level intervention; and the European Parliament, whose question has been effectively rebuffed without any commitment to further action.