Secondly, although Germany took the position that the re-increase could not be considered as new aid since the ceiling amount EUR 10 billion had already been approved by the 2011 decision, the Commission explained in the Opening decision that the cancellation of a guarantee is of a binding character and that any re-instatement had to be considered as a new agreement between guarantor and the guarantee holder, based on a new economic assessment of the risk factors that may have changed over time.
Toutefois, dans la décision d'ouverture, la Commission n'a exprimé aucun doute sur les mesures d'équilibrage de charges ou de limitation de distorsions de concurrence qui avaient été approuvées dans la décision de 2011, et a noté que ces mesures étaient encore appropriées lors de la décision d'ouverture, puisque la nouvelle aide restait dans les limites des mesures approuvées en 2011 [49].