An information board displays cancelled Renfe's trains at Malaga Maria Zambrano train station during a 23-hour nationwide train strike against the privatization plans of railway public companies Adif and Renfe, in Malaga, southern Spain December 26, 2014. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission ordered Spain on Monday to recover illegal state aid given to state-owned railway operator ADIF for the construction of a high-speed train test centre.

The Commission said Spain planned to finance the full investment costs of 358.6 million euros (£299.6 million) for the construction near Malaga of a railway circuit for testing trains running up to speeds of 520 kilometres per hour (323 miles per hour).

The public funding was awarded to ADIF. The Commission said that Spain had already paid out 140.7 million euros from 2011 to ADIF before the Commission’s decision, in violation of EU rules.

The Commission also said that the project was not in line with EU state aid rules because it does not meet a genuine objective of common interest.

“There does not appear to be an interest in the market to develop products that run at such high speeds because they would not be commercially viable,” the Commission said in a statement.

It said that in the absence of such demand, the centre would in practise be limited to testing trains running up to 320-350 kmh, duplicating the work of existing test EU centres.

The Commission said no private investor had expressed interest, despite the public funding, adding that the project did not contribute to the objective of promoting sustainable development in the region of Andalusia.