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 (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2003-12-10
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Germany, Italy, State aid, United Kingdom, aid to undertakings, continuing education, control of State aid

C 299/12

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

10.12.2003

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

Name and address of the granting authority:

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 250 000 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.

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

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

Total: UKL 0,79 million to train 3 000 participants. No indi-
vidual recipient will receive more than EUR 1 million. The
average aid per beneficiary amounts to UKL 263

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

Maximum aid intensity:

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

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 299/13

— 70 % for general training for small and medium-sized enter-
prises. 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 enter-
is transferable to other sectors and improves the
prises,
employability of the individual. Eligibility of trainees will
be monitored when registering for the course.

Aid No: XT 12/03

Member State: Germany

Region: Brandenburg

— 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

to increase environmental
management
that potentially
improve the employability of the trainees and provide a
stepping-stone to higher qualifications.

competences

and skills

training’

— To increase competences relating to environmental issues
such as biodiversity, water quality (including eutrophi-
cation) 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: 1 250

— 2005/06: 1 000

Title of aid scheme or name of the company receiving an
‘Skills development through training in small
individual aid:
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 4 000 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 3 000 per employee for general

training

measures (at least 20 % own contribution)

— up to EUR 4 600 per firm for the analysis of individual

training needs (at least 20 % own contribution)

Total training places = 3 000

— up to EUR 30 000 for network management

in cross-

company training association.

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 Agri-
culture and Rural Development, Room 547, Dundonald House,
Upper Newtownards Rd, Belfast BT4 3SB Northern Ireland,
United Kingdom

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.

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Official Journal of the European Union

10.12.2003

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

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

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

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

— with a maximum aid intensity of 80 % if the participant is

working in an SME (main case of application);

Total: UKL 290 461

— with a maximum aid intensity of 60 % if the participant is

— 2002: UKL 56 678

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

— 2003: UKL 57 937

— 2004: UKL 56 921

— 2005: UKL 58 598

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

— 2006: UKL 60 327

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
forms of
needs-geared training (in addition to traditional
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.

Maximum aid intensity:

— 70 % for SMEs in the case of general training

— 35 % for SMEs in the case of specific training

Please see comments under the maximum aid intensity section.

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

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

Information

the

on

63 SMEs. The maximum support any individual SME would
receive during the programme is UKL 60 000

Economic sector(s) concerned: All economic sectors

Date of implementation: 1 December 2002

Name and address of the granting authority:

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

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

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

sectors

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

services

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 299/15

Name and address of the granting authority:

LARGE ENTERPRISES

Specific training

General training

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

Non-assisted areas

Assisted areas under Article
87(3)(c)

25 %

30 %

50 %

55 %

SMEs

Specific training

General training

Non-assisted areas

Assisted areas under Article
87(3)(c)

35 %

40 %

70 %

75 %

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

Monitoring support given by: Coventry City Council Local
Authority

Duration of
December 2004

scheme or

individual

aid award: Until

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
individual aid granted to the company:
amount of
EUR 53 833 348
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.

EUR 26 655 123

of which

has

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
the
68/2001. The aid, quantified on the assumption that
is
training course will be carried out properly and in full,
granted in the form of reimbursements of eligible expenditure
actually incurred and backed by documentary evidence in
respect of
in relation to the activity
actually carried out and within the maximum intensity
ceilings given below:

training programmes,

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

C 299/16

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Official Journal of the European Union

10.12.2003

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
training activities, which require
uniform management at regional level.

regional

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 Aless-

andria

— 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
in any event exceed EUR 1 million
this Directive may not
(ITL 1 936 270 000)

Authorisation for State aid pursuant to Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty

Cases where the Commission raises no objections

(2003/C 299/06)

Date of adoption of the decision: 14.11.2003

Member State: United Kingdom

Aid No: N 5/03

Title: Agri-environment Entry Level Scheme — Pilot

Objective: The Entry Level Scheme will aim to deliver environ-
mental and landscape benefits across a wide area. In particular,
it is being designed to address the following environmental
problems:

— diffuse pollution — can only be tackled and prevented
effectively by environmental management measures that
affect a high proportion of land from which the pollution
is coming,

— loss of biodiversity — a broad approach is deemed
necessary to tackle and prevent declines
in dispersed
species such as farmland birds, brown hares, bats and
many common invertebrates (e.g. butterflies, bees),

— loss of landscape character — a broad approach is deemed
necessary to consistently influence what happens across
large tracts of the countryside, to avoid the fragmentation
of traditional landscape patterns,

— damage

to the historic

environment — safeguarding
extensive aspects of
the historic environment, such as
archaeological sites and ridge and furrow grassland which
are at
risk of plough damage, also requires a broad
approach

Legal basis: Non-statutory initiative

for the Entry Level Scheme Pilot

Budget: The budget
is
GBP 2,2 million (EUR 3,42 million) a year. This budget
consists of direct costs (payments to farmers) of GBP 1,6
million (EUR 2,49 million) and government administration
costs of GBP 0,6 million. The actual expenditure will depend
upon the levels of uptake of the scheme in the four pilot areas

Aid intensity or amount: Variable