DSR-SENATOR STILL CONFIDENT DESPITE LOSS OF EUROPEAN APPEAL

   The European Court of Justice has rejected an individual appeal by DSR-Senator for exemption from a bank guarantee it was required to furnish on a fine which the European Commission imposed on all members of the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement in 1998.
   A continuing dispute between TACA and the Commission over these fines or their amount could go on for another "three or four years," said Jan Steffans, Executive Vice-President of DSR-Senator. The dispute over an interim bank guarantee from us is only "part of the picture," he said.
   "It is no secret that DSR-Senator was under some financial strain at the time of the TACA fine, and was reorganising," he said. "We dropped our round-the-world service. It was obviously no time to ask a bank for a $14 million guarantee. So we appealed, initially to the court of first instance, and then to the court of justice."
   The main dispute was over the EC’s fine in the first place, and its amount, Steffans said. He is less worried to have lost the guarantee issue on appeal, which may still have further stages to go. "I am confident we will find a way to settle with the European Commission (on this)," he said.
   DSR-Senator has been trading profitably since last June on a monthly basis, "but it takes time to gain strength", he said.