State aid: Commission adopts new rules to support important projects of common European interest
16 Jun 2014 03:35 PM
The European Commission
has set out criteria under which Member States can support transnational
projects of strategic significance for the EU and for the achievement of Europe
2020 objectives, in line with EU state aid rules. This is part of the
Commission's State Aid Modernisation (SAM) initiative, aimed at fostering
growth and competitiveness in the EU.
Commission Vice-President in
charge of competition policy, Joaquín Almunia, said: "The
rules on support for important projects of common interest give Member States a
tool to address market failures in financing large transnational projects of a
strategic importance."
The Commission has adopted a
Communication on Important Projects of Common European Interest(IPCEIs) aimed
at encouraging Member States to channel their public spending to large projects
that make a clear contribution to economic growth, jobs and the competitiveness
of Europe. Where private initiatives fail to materialise because of the
significant risks and the transnational cooperation such projects entail,
Member States may fill the funding gap to overcome such market failures and
boost the realisation of projects that otherwise would not have taken
off.
Key features of the IPCEI
communication are:
-
Extending existing
provisions on IPCEIs to any sector of the economy. EU state aid rules
on research(see IP/06/1600 and MEMO/06/441) and the environment (see IP/08/80 and MEMO/08/31) alreadycontained some provisions on IPCEIs, which are
replaced by today's Communication. The new provisions are neutral as
to the sector where the IPCEI project is realised. This will make it much
easier to support important projects with a clear European dimension in areas
such as R&D, cross-border transport, or energy that would otherwise have
needed to be assessed under several different sets of rules.
-
Diversifying forms of
support. Member States may grant repayable advances, loans,
guarantees or grants to IPCEIs.
-
Increasing aid
intensity. Where justified, public support may cover up to
100% of the funding gap on the basis of a large set of eligible
costs.
-
Allowing aid for the
first industrial deployment of an R&D project, i.e. during
the up-scaling of the pilot facilities and the testing phase.
The text of the communication is
available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/modernisation/index_en.html
See also MEMO/14/423.
Background
The communication is part of the
Commission's SAM initiative (see IP/12/458), setting an ambitious modernisation program fostering
sustainable, smart and inclusive growth by encouraging more effective aid
measures and focusing the Commission’s scrutiny on cases with the biggest
impact on competition. As part of this package, the Commission has already
reformed its state aid procedures (see IP/13/728), exempted more aid measures from prior notification to
the Commission (see IP/13/587) and introduced new transparency requirements (see IP/14/588). The Commission has also adopted new guidelines on state
aid for broadband (see IP/12/1424), regional development (see IP/13/569), cinema (see IP/13/1074), airports and airlines (see IP/14/172), risk finance (see IP/14/21), energy and environment (see IP/14/400) as well as R&D and innovation (see IP/14/586).
The IPCEI Communication is based
on Article 107(3)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
(TFEU), which allows Member States to grant aid to promote the execution
of an important project of common European interest.