Ryanair will not Pay EU Commission Fine

Ryanair’s outspoken Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said his company will not pay a €4 million ($4.9 million) EU fine due Sept. 15. "The EU judgment is just blindingly wrong. There will be a repayment over my dead body," he told the Associated Press. The European Commission ruled in January that the low-cost airline must repay some of the assistance it was given by the authorities at Charleroi, its hub in continental Europe located 65 km south of Brussels. Ryanair received a total of 15 million euro from the authorities to help run its operations, mostly in the form of reductions in landing and ground-handling fees, breaks the Commision said were anti-competitive. O'Leary challenged the ruling, branding the Commission "Stalinist" as well as "psychologically and morally bankrupt." (EUobserver.com)