Ryanair weigert om boete van Europese Commissie te betalen (en)

Ryanair's outspoken Chief Executive Michael O'Leary says his company will not pay a four million euro EU fine due later this month.

"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 kilometres 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.

Mr O'Leary has challenged the ruling, branding the Commission "Stalinist" as well as "psychologically and morally bankrupt".

Ryanair has been asked to repay the four million euro fine by 15 September.