Information communicated by Member States regarding State aid granted under Commission Regulation (EC) No 68/2001 of 12 January 2001 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to training aid

(2003/C 299/05)

(Text with EEA relevance)

Aid No: XT 3/03

Member State: United Kingdom

Region: The whole of the UK

Title of aid scheme or name of the company receiving an individual aid: The Foundation Programme of the Carbon Trust: Training

Legal basis: Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Science and Technology Act 1965

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: The Market Diffusion stream has predicted total expenditure of UKL 1,5 million for 2002-03.

Funding under the Market Diffusion stream will also operate under de minimis and SME block exemptions. Parallel information is being submitted about the latter. The use of the block exemption will depend on the response to the call for proposals. The funding outlined above refers to the total funding under all block exemptions for the Market Diffusion stream.

Aid will not exceed UKL 250000 to any one company

Maximum aid intensity: When operated under this block exemption, the scheme will provide support only for general training for SMEs. Project funding of up to 70 % will be provided outside assisted areas. An additional 5 % will be given in Article 87(3)(c) areas and 10 % in Article 87(3)(a) areas

Date of implementation: 10 January 2003

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: 31 December 2005

Objective of aid: The Foundation Programme will support general training in association with trade associations and higher educational institutions.

The purpose of the Foundation Programme is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through the support of low-carbon technologies along the innovation chain.

The main objective of the Market Diffusion stream is to address non-technological and non-financial barriers to the adoption of new and emerging technologies through small projects

Economic sector(s) concerned: All sectors

Name and address of the granting authority: Peter Shortt

Foundation Programme Director

The Carbon Trust

9th/10th Floor

3 Clements Inn

London WC2A 2AZ United Kingdom

Other information: The operation of the scheme by the Trust will be supervised by the UK Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs ("DEFRA") and, where appropriate, the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Aid No: XT 6/03

Member State: United Kingdom

Region: Northern Ireland

Title of aid scheme or name of company receiving an individual aid: Training in good farming practice in areas outside the less-favoured areas (LFA)

Legal basis: - Agriculture Act 1949

- Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 1970

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: - 2003/04: UKL 0,29 million

- 2004/05: UKL 0,25 million

- 2005/06: UKL 0,25 million

Total: UKL 0,79 million to train 3000 participants. No individual recipient will receive more than EUR 1 million. The average aid per beneficiary amounts to UKL 263

Maximum aid intensity: The actual aid intensity of the programme is 75 %. This matches the maximum allowable aid intensity of 75 % based on

- 70 % for general training for small and medium-sized enterprises. All trainees come from SMEs as defined in Annex 1 of Regulation (EC) No 68/2001. The training is general as the qualification is open to employees of different enterprises, is transferable to other sectors and improves the employability of the individual. Eligibility of trainees will be monitored when registering for the course.

- 5 % regional aid. Northern Ireland qualifies for regional aid under Article 87(3)(c) of the Treaty

Date of implementation: 1 April 2003

Duration of scheme or individual aid award:: 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2006

Objective of aid: - To provide "general training" to increase environmental management competences and skills that potentially improve the employability of the trainees and provide a stepping-stone to higher qualifications.

- To increase competences relating to environmental issues such as biodiversity, water quality (including eutrophication) and the protection of Northern Ireland's land-based heritage.

- To encourage and enable participants to take informed decisions about the future of their businesses based on objective information.

- The programme will be targeted at farmers, members of the family and farm employees from small and medium-sized enterprises outside the LFA and will provide the following number of training places:

- 2003/04: 750

- 2004/05: 1250

- 2005/06: 1000

Total training places = 3000

Economic sectors concerned: Agriculture, including forestry and land-based businesses

Name and address of the granting authority: Dr John Speers, Director of Environmental, Food and Central Services, Agri-Food Development Service, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Room 547, Dundonald House, Upper Newtownards Rd, Belfast BT4 3SB Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Aid No: XT 12/03

Member State: Germany

Region: Brandenburg

Title of aid scheme or name of the company receiving an individual aid: "Skills development through training in small and medium-sized businesses" - guidelines of the Brandenburg Ministry for Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Women

Legal basis: Landeshaushaltsordnung des Landes Brandenburg (LHO), § 44 und die dazugehörigen Verwaltungsvorschriften

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: The maximum amount of aid available over the duration of the scheme is broken down as follows:

- 2003: EUR 2,5 million (EUR 1,75 million from the ESF and EUR 0,75 million from the Land)

- 2004: EUR 2,5 million (EUR 1,75 million from the ESF and EUR 0,75 million from the Land)

Some 4000 people are to be assisted.

The relevant costs are trainers' personnel costs, trainers' travel expenses, other current expenses and the cost of guidance and counselling services with regard to the training project, as specified in Article 4(7)(a) to (c) and (e) of the Regulation

Maximum aid intensity: - up to EUR 3000 per employee for general training measures (at least 20 % own contribution)

- up to EUR 4600 per firm for the analysis of individual training needs (at least 20 % own contribution)

- up to EUR 30000 for network management in cross-company training association.

On the basis of individual training needs analyses, the training association identifies employees with a similar training need, and designs and organises the necessary cross-company training.

Given the cross-company nature of the training association within a project, the measures are general training measures within the meaning of the Regulation.

Guidance and counselling costs within the meaning of Article 4(7)(e) of the Regulation are incurred for guidance with the training needs analysis carried out prior to devising specific individual training measures.

Similar costs arise in connection with the design and organisation of cross-company training by the training association as part of its network management.

These general training measures receive assistance from the ESF and the Land:

- with a maximum aid intensity of 80 % if the participant is working in an SME (main case of application);

- with a maximum aid intensity of 60 % if the participant is working in a large firm (in exceptional cases).

The measures are being implemented only in the assisted area covered by Article 87(3)(a) of the EC Treaty

Date of implementation: The guidelines entered into force on 1 January 2003

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2004

Objective: The aim of the aid is integrated skills development for employees in small and medium-sized businesses. It should meet the requirements of the rapidly changing demand for needs-geared training (in addition to traditional forms of training) through new forms of teaching and learning and through process-integrated guidance with assessing training needs. The cooperation of firms within a training association is of growing significance for sustainable skills development.

Please see comments under the maximum aid intensity section.

The guidelines have been published on the internet at http://www.lasa-brandenburg.de. Information on the aid granted is also given in turn

Economic sector(s) concerned: All economic sectors

Name and address of the granting authority: LASA Brandenburg GmbH Wetzlarer Straße 54 D - 14482 Potsdam

Aid No: XT 15/03

Member State: United Kingdom

Region: West Midlands Objective 2

Title of aid scheme or name of the company receiving an individual aid: Developing the creative industries in Coventry through training 2002-06

Legal basis: Employment Act 1973, Sections 2(1) and 2(2) as substantiated by Section 25 of the Employment and Training Act 1998 and the Industrial Development 1982, Section 11

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: Total: UKL 290461

- 2002: UKL 56678

- 2003: UKL 57937

- 2004: UKL 56921

- 2005: UKL 58598

- 2006: UKL 60327

Maximum aid intensity: - 70 % for SMEs in the case of general training

- 35 % for SMEs in the case of specific training

Aid intensities may be increased by 5 percentage points in assisted areas.

63 SMEs. The maximum support any individual SME would receive during the programme is UKL 60000

Date of implementation: 1 December 2002

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: 31 December 2006 - five years

Objective of the aid: To provide training support to existing and new SMEs in the creative industries. The majority of SMEs in this sector are microbusinesses lacking the essential business management skills required for survival. By granting this assistance, jobs in existing SMEs will be safeguarded.

Most of the training will be general in nature and provide transferable skills for use in the creative industries. Training will lead towards NVQs.

In a few cases, after a needs assessment, specific training may be required. In those cases, the lower aid intensity will be applied

Economic sectors concerned: Other services (creative industries). Without prejudice to the special rules in regulations and directives concerning State aid in certain sectors

Name and address of the granting authority: Roger Vaughan Coventry City Council

Herbert Art Gallery and Museum

Jordan Well, Coventry CV1 5QP United Kingdom Tel. 024 76 83 23 75

Other information: Marion Doyen

Chief Executive

Arts+Media Training Consortium (Coventry) Ltd 57-61 Corporation Street Coventry CV1 1GQ United Kingdom Tel. 024 76 23 17 02

Monitoring support given by: Coventry City Council Local Authority

Aid No: XT 98/02

Member State: Italy

Region: Piedmont

Title of aid scheme or name of the company receiving an individual aid: Directive concerning the training of workers in employment - 2003

Legal basis: Deliberazione della Giunta Regionale n. 79 - 7313 del 7.10.2002

Annual expenditure planned under the scheme or overall amount of individual aid granted to the company: EUR 53833348 of which EUR 26655123 has been allocated to the 2002 budget in the form of reimbursements of eligible expenditure actually incurred in respect of training programmes and supported by documentary evidence.

Recipients: firms (small, medium-sized or large) running the training course; they are individually identified before the action is approved

Maximum aid intensity: The maximum aid intensities are those laid down in Article 4(2) to (6) of Regulation (EC) No 68/2001. The aid, quantified on the assumption that the training course will be carried out properly and in full, is granted in the form of reimbursements of eligible expenditure actually incurred and backed by documentary evidence in respect of training programmes, in relation to the activity actually carried out and within the maximum intensity ceilings given below:

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The above intensities are increased by 10 percentage points if the training is given to disadvantaged workers, as defined in Article 2(g) of Regulation (EC) No 68/2001

Date of implementation: 31 January 2003

Duration of scheme or individual aid award: Until December 2004

Objective of aid: The aid scheme covers general and specific training. Under Article 2(e) of Regulation (EC) No 68/2001:

- general training means training of a general nature which is not related solely to the employee's present or future position in the assisted firm and provides qualifications that are largely transferable to other firms or fields of work;

- specific training means training involving theoretical and practical tuition applicable to the employee's present or future position in the assisted firm.

For the purpose of implementing this aid scheme, it should be pointed out that:

- "general training" includes courses where there is already provision for final public certification of the qualification or professional or vocational licence and training courses organised for more than one firm, i.e. providing tuition for workers and/or owners from two or more firms, even if they are in the same productive sector;

- "specific training" includes courses aimed at workers and/or owners of the same firm

Economic sector(s) concerned: All sectors. All services

Name and address of the granting authority: Title IV of Regional Law No 44 of 26 April 2000 adopting the implementing provisions of Decree-Law No 112 of 31 March 1998 sets out the distribution of functions between the region and the provinces in the field of training, allocating to the latter, in addition to the functions already transferred to them under preceding Regional Law No 63 of 13 April 1995, other functions linked to vocational training and, in particular, the management of the training activities provided for by the annual directives referred to in Article 18 of Regional Law No 63/95, including the launching of calls for the presentation of financing applications, their evaluation and the granting of the relevant aid, which will be transferred gradually from January 2001. However, under Regional Law No 44 of 26 April 2000, the Region retains responsibility for experimental or regional training activities, which require uniform management at regional level.

Accordingly, in accordance with the abovementioned legal framework, the authorities granting the aid are, depending on the type of activity provided for by the Directive concerned, the Region itself and the Piedmont provincial administrative departments:

- Regione Piemonte - Direzione regionale alla Formazione Professionale - Lavoro Settore Attività Formativa, via Magenta, 12, I - 10128 Torino

- Provincia di Torino, via Maria Vittoria, 12, I - 10100 Torino

- Provincia di Vercelli, via San Cristoforo, 7, I - 13100 Vercelli

- Provincia di Novara, p.zza G. Matteotti, 1, I - 28100 Novara

- Provincia di Cuneo, c.so Nizza, 21, I - 12100 Cuneo

- Provincia di Asti, p.zza V. Alfieri, 33, I - 14100 Asti

- Provincia di Alessandria, p.zza Libertà, 17, I - 15100 Alessandria

- Provincia di Biella, via Quintino Sella, 12, I - 13051 Biella

- Provincia del Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, via dell'Industria, 25, I - 28924 Verbania

Other information: The total public contribution that may be allocated to a single firm for training programmes under this Directive may not in any event exceed EUR 1 million (ITL 1936270000)