EU Commission bankrupts Cyprus Airways

The EU competition commissioner has forced Cyprus Airways out of business by telling it to repay £50m she considers to be illegal state aid.

Cyprus Airways is 93% owned by the Cypriot government and has struggled to stem losses in recent years. The EU Commission will only allow a government to bail out a company - even one it is majority shareholder in - once in 10 years and ruled that Cyprus Airways has to pay back the money it got in the last financial year, bankrupting the company.

Only in the EU could the person responsible for increasing competition deliberately bankrupt a business, putting more than 1,200 out of a job and reducing competition and still be doing their job.