Report from the Commission - State aid scoreboard - Autumn 2007 update
Date: 2007-12-13
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, State aid, control of State aid, report

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 13.12.2007 
COM(2007) 791 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 

State Aid Scoreboard 

- Autumn 2007 Update - 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................ 3 

Part One: Progress Towards The European Strategy for Growth and Jobs (Lisbon Agenda) ... 7 

1. 

1.1. 

1.2. 

1.3. 

1.4. 

1.5. 

1.6. 

2. 

2.1. 

2.2. 

2.3. 

2.4. 

3. 

3.1. 

3.2. 

3.3. 

4. 

State aid in absolute and relative terms........................................................................ 8 

Overview .................................................................................................................... 11 

State aid to the transport sector .................................................................................. 13 

State aid to the agriculture and fisheries sectors ........................................................ 18 

State aid to the coal sector.......................................................................................... 21 

State aid to the steel sector ......................................................................................... 22 

State aid to the shipbuilding sector ............................................................................ 22 

State aid for horizontal objectives.............................................................................. 22 

Overview .................................................................................................................... 22 

Trend in State aid for horizontal objectives and sectoral objectives.......................... 25 

State aid for research and development (R&D) ......................................................... 28 

State aid supporting regional development and cohesion .......................................... 31 

Aid awarded under the block exemption regulations (BER) ..................................... 32 

Number of block exempted measures introduced by Member States........................ 34 

Expenditure under block exempted measures............................................................ 35 

Share of block exempted aid in aid directed at horizontal objectives........................ 36 

State aid instruments .................................................................................................. 38 

Part Two: Recovery Of Unlawful Aid ..................................................................................... 41 

Part Three: Legislative and Policy Developments ................................................................... 46 

1. 

2. 

3. 

New legislation........................................................................................................... 47 

Draft legislation.......................................................................................................... 48 

Regional Aid maps..................................................................................................... 51 

Online State aid scoreboard, register and other reports on state aid ........................................ 51 

Methodological Notes .............................................................................................................. 52 

Annex I: Pending recovery decisions (30 June 2007).............................................................. 54 

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

This autumn 2007 update of the State Aid Scoreboard focuses on the State aid situation in the 
twenty-five Member States for the year 2006 and the underlying trends. The main aim is to 
assess  Member  States  progress  towards  meeting  the  Lisbon  objectives  and  response  to 
successive  European  Councils  call  for  “less  and  better  targeted  aid”.  This  update  of  the 
Scoreboard also includes a detailed state of play regarding aid for research and development 
(R&D)  as  well  as  aid  granted  under  block  exemption  regulations.  It  also  includes  the 
customary summary of ongoing efforts to recover unlawful aid and an overview of ongoing 
work to modernise State aid control through legislative and policy means. 

The Member States' response to Council calls for less State aid: appreciable downward 
trend in the overall volume of State aid  

The  overall  level  of  State  aid  for  industry  and  services  (total  State  aid  less  agriculture, 
fisheries  and  transport)1  shows  a  significant  downward  trend  in  the  mid-  to  long-term 
perspective.  In  relation  to  GDP,  and  during  a  period  of  steady  economic  growth,  State  aid 
decreased  by  15%  from  0.50%  of  GDP  in  the  period  2001-2003  to  0.43%  of  GDP  in  the 
period  2004-2006  (see  Table  2).  Also  in  absolute  terms,  total  State  aid  decreased  from  an 
annual average of € 53.1 billion to an annual average of € 47,6 billion in the two consecutive 
periods. This positive development can be attributed to mainly three factors: 

•  First,  and  in  line  with  expectations  in  a  period  of  economic  growth,  Member 
States granted considerably less rescue and restructuring aid, accounting for half 
of the decrease over the two periods. In absolute terms, rescue and restructuring 
aid decreased from € 6.2 billion to € 1.8 billion. 

•  Second, state aid to the coal sector shows a continued downward trend. 

•  Third,  this  downward  trend  is  even  more  accentuated  in  the  EU-10.  Here,  pre-
accession commitments and continued efforts after accession contributed likewise 
as these Member States continue to adjust their State aid policies and practices to 
the requirements under EU State aid law and policies. 

At the same time, aid to environmental protection has increased significantly in recent years. 
Aid for all other objectives has remained relatively stable.  

The trend of the overall EU-25 level of State aid does not only reflect the broader strategic 
choices or changes in national policies but is likewise influenced by a relatively small number 
of large cases (for example, restructuring aid in Germany to Bankgesellschaft Berlin (BGB), 
amounting to some € 8 billion in the years 2001 and 2002, € 4 billion for Polish coal in 2003, 
€ 1.4  billion  to  Alstom  in  France  2004,  and  € 750  million  restructuring  aid  to  BAWAG  in 
Austria 2006).  

1 

The  overall  level  of  State  aid,  including  aid  to  the  agriculture,  fisheries  and  transport  sector  stood  in 
2006 at € 67 bn and accounted for 0.58% of GDP. This figure excludes subsidies to the railway sector 
(some estimated € 37 bn in 2006 – see table 5) as well as aid for the compensation of services of general 
economic interest. 

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The EU average of State aid for industry and services expressed as percentage of GDP hides 
differences  between  Member  States.  The  sharpest  falls  can  be  observed  in  Czech  Republic, 
Cyprus  and  Malta,  largely  due  to  the  phasing  out  of  pre-accession  measures,  and  in  Poland 
due  to  the  declining  aid  to  the  coal  industry.  Denmark,  Germany,  Ireland  and  Spain 
experienced  also  a  significant  decrease.  By  contrast,  State  aid  in  relation  to  GDP  increased 
significantly during the two periods under review in Austria and Finland. In 2006, Germany 
accounted for € 16 billion of the total of € 48 billion of the aid for industry and services. More 
significantly, its share of aid expressed as percentage of GDP (0.69%) is considerably higher 
than the EU average (0.42%), with half of German aid awarded for environmental and energy 
saving objectives and 14% of the aid awarded for coal production Other Member States with a 
high  share  include  Sweden  (0.94%)  where  the  aid  is  almost  entirely  awarded  for 
environmental and energy saving objectives, Portugal (0.91%) due to a large regional aid tax 
scheme  in  Madeira,  as  well  as  Hungary  (0.93%)  and  Malta  (1.77%)  though  most  of  the  aid 
measures in question are either being phased out under transitional arrangements or limited in 
time.  Among  those  Member  States  with  a  relatively  low  share  of  aid  to  GDP  (less  than 
0.25%) are the three Baltic countries together with Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and 
the United Kingdom.  

Almost two thirds of Member States have reacted positively to Council's call to redirect 
State  aid  towards  horizontal  objectives  and  more  than  90%  of  their  State  aid  is  now 
granted for horizontal objectives  

The  clear  move  towards  "better  targeted  aid"  continues  with  almost  two  third  of  Member 
States  now  awarding  more  than  90%  of  their  aid  to  horizontal  objectives.  On  average,  aid 
earmarked for horizontal objectives, accounted for 85% of total aid for industry and services 
in 2006. This compares to 83% in 2005, 76% in 2004 and around 50% in the mid Nineties. In 
welcoming this trend, one should be aware that much of the increase in horizontal aid can be 
attributed  to  an  increase  in  tax  exemptions  for  the  environment  and  energy  saving,  in 
particular  for  energy  intensive  industries.  The  three  main  horizontal  objectives  remain 
environment and energy saving (29% of total aid), regional economic development (19%) and 
R&D  (14%).  Environment  and  energy  saving  was  extensively  supported  by  the  Nordic 
countries,  Germany,  the  Netherlands  and  the  United  Kingdom.  Regional  development  was 
favoured  mainly  by  EU-10  and  Mediterranean  countries.  Research  and  development  was 
favoured most by  Finland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, the Czech Republic  and 
Estonia. 

The clear positive shift towards horizontal objectives is even more significant in the EU-
10 Member States as they continue to adjust their State aid policies and practices  

It  is  encouraging  to  see  that  all  EU-10  Member  States  have  progressively  redirected  aid 
towards horizontal objectives. The share of horizontal objectives in total aid for industry and 
services increased in the EU-10 Member States by 36 percentage points between 2001-2003 
and 2004-2006, compared to an overall increase of 17 points in this period.  

State aid for R&D is moderately increasing 

As  regards  State  aid  to  R&D,  total  expenditure  stood  at  € 6.7  billion  in  2006.  After  a 
significant increase in 2001, the level of R&D aid has remained rather stable at the beginning 
of the decade, but shows a slight upward trend in the most recent years (+1.7%). 

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Under  the  new  R&D&I  framework  that  entered  into  force  at  the  beginning  of  2007,  the 
Commission  approved  so  far  42  R&D&I  schemes  and  ad  hoc  cases  with  a  total  budget  of 
more  than  € 12  bn.  The  first  year  of  application  has  shown  that  a  good  preparation  by  the 
Member  State  and  a  fruitful  co-operation  with  the  Commission  allows  for  a  more  detailed 
assessment while producing decisions within a timeframe very similar to what was observed 
under  the  old  framework.  15  of  those  schemes  involved  innovation  aid,  thus  exploiting  the 
expansion of activities eligible for aid provided by the new Framework. 

Furthermore, a comparison between State aid expenditure data on R&D with Eurostat data on 
overall  private  and  public  R&D  investment  suggests  that  only  a  small  part  of  public  R&D 
spending is subject to notification under the State aid rules. This, together with the enlarged 
scope  of  R&D&I  activities  eligible  for  aid  under  the  new  framework,  demonstrate  the  high 
flexibility for Member States to boost investment in research, development and innovation. 

Overall private and public investment in R&D still falls short of the Barcelona target of 3% 
and  stood  at  1.85%  in  2005  (of  which  0.64  percentage  points  were  government  spending). 
Only Finland and Sweden exceed the Barcelona target for expenditure on R&D (3% of GDP) 
while another four Member States (Germany, Denmark, Austria and France) reach levels of 
R&D expenditure between 2 and 3% of GDP. State aid to R&D represents a relatively small 
share  in  public  funding.  For  the  EU-25,  State  aid  expenditure  for  R&D  stood  at  0.06%  of 
GDP in 2006. 

Member  States  have  been  able  to  introduce  more  than  2500  block  exempted  aid 
measures  

In areas where sufficient experience to define general compatibility criteria has been built up, 
the Commission introduced so-called block exemption regulations enabling Member States to 
implement aid that does not raise concerns as to its compatibility without further proceedings 
before  the  Commission.  Block  exemptions  for  aid  to  SMEs  (2001,  amended  in  2004  to 
include R&D for SMEs), training aid (2001), employment aid (2003) and regional investment 
aid (2007), as well as for certain types of aid in the fisheries sector (2004) and aid to SMEs in 
the  agricultural  sector  (2004,  amended  with  effect  of  2007),  have  come  into  force  over  the 
past few years. 

Experience  has  shown  that  the  objectives  of  the  block  exemption  regulations  have  been 
largely met, with Member States able to introduce almost 1700 block exempted measures in 
the period 2001 – 2006. This has been accompanied by a significant reduction in the number 
of notified measures for these types of aid. In 2006 alone, the Commission has received more 
than 400 information forms on newly introduced BER measures. 

In  the  first  three  quarters  of  2007,  Member  States  informed  the  Commission  that  they 
implemented an additional number of more than 800 block exempted measures, bringing the 
total  number  of  block  exempted  measures  to  more  than  2500  since  the  adoption  of  the  first 
state aid exemption regulation in 2001. The reason for this significant increase is threefold: 

•  First,  many  State  aid  measures  are  co-financed  by  EU  structural  funds.  Member 
States  therefore  tend  to  introduce  a  significant  number  of  new  state  aid  block 
exemption  measures  at  the  beginning  of  a  structural  funds  programming  period 
(now 2007 – 2013). This concerns in particular measures for aid to SMEs (246) 
and aid to training (86). 

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•  Second,  the  Commission  observes  a  high  take-up  rate  for  the  new  possibility  to 

block exempt regional investment aid (154 new measures). 

•  Third, the widening of block exemption possibilities for State aid to SMEs active 
in  the  agricultural  sector  has  almost  tripled  the  total  number  of  new  measures 
communicated  by  the  Member  States  to  the  Commission  in  the  field  of 
agriculture. 

In  2006,  Member  States  granted  around  € 3  billion  of  State  aid  under  block  exempted 
measures  

As regards expenditure, an estimated € 3 billion was awarded in 2006 under the three block 
exemption  regulations  for  SMEs  in  the  manufacturing  and  services  sector,  training  and 
employment,  while  still  another  €  6  billion  was  awarded  for  the  same  objectives  under 
notified aid measures. Aid to SMEs accounted for € 1.9 billion, while € 0.6 billion were spent 
for training aid and another € 0.6 billion for aid to employment. In 2006, four Member States 
accounted  for  more  than  75%  of  total  expenditure.  Italy  made  up  for  36%  of  the  total 
expenditure, followed by Poland (20%), Germany (13%) and the United Kingdom (9%). 

The  significant  increase  in  2007  of  newly  introduced  block  exempted  measures,  combined 
with  sizeable  budgets  of  many  of  the  new  measures  seems  to  indicate  a  steep  increase  in 
expenditure under block exemption regulations.  

Increasing  use  of  block  exemptions  over  time  but  with  considerable  variations  by 
objective and between Member States 

The extent to which block exempted aid has over time replaced notified aid can be established 
by  comparing  total  expenditure  granted  under  a  given  horizontal  objective  with  the 
expenditure under block exemption for the same objective. Results show that Member States 
have  increasingly  made  use  of  the  block  exemption  possibilities,  even  though  with 
considerable variations by objective and between Member States. For training aid around 80% 
of overall expenditure  was  reported  by Member States  under  block  exempted  measures,  the 
share was 35% for SME aid but less than 20% for employment aid. The good take up rate for 
the newly introduced block exemption for regional aid as well as the increased use of other 
block exemption regulations in 2007 suggests that one important factor for a high acceptance 
of  block  exemptions  by  Member  States  is  their  availability  at  the  beginning  of  a  Structural 
Funds programming period. 

Other aspects of the State aid policy 

In  addition  to  the  general  trends  in  State  aid,  the  autumn  2007  update  of  the  State  Aid 
Scoreboard provides details on sectoral aid, recovery of unlawful aid and on legislative and 
policy developments. 

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INTRODUCTION 

This autumn 2007 update of the State Aid Scoreboard focuses on the State aid situation in the 
twenty-five Member States for the year 20062 and the underlying trends. The main aim is to 
assess  Member  States  progress  towards  meeting  the  Lisbon  objectives  and  response  to 
successive European Councils call for “less and better targeted aid”. The European Council of 
March 2005 invited Member States to “continue working towards a reduction in the general 
level  of  State  aid,  while  making  allowance  for  any  market  failures.  This  movement  must  be 
accompanied by a redeployment of aid in favour of support for certain horizontal objectives 
such  as  research  and  innovation  and  the  optimisation  of  human  capital.  The  reform  of 
regional aid should also foster a high level of investment and ensure a reduction in disparities 
in accordance with the Lisbon objectives.” These goals were underlined by the Commission 
Recommendation on the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines for 2005-2008.3 

The  Scoreboard  is  divided  into  three  main  parts.  Part  One  looks  at  the  extent  to  which 
Member States have responded to the Lisbon Strategy by first providing an overview of the 
amount and type of State aid awarded by the Member States in 2006 and then examining the 
underlying trends.  

Parts  Two  and  Three  contain  an  overview  of  ongoing  efforts  to  recover  unlawful  aid  and 
summarise ongoing work to modernise State aid control through legislative and policy means.  

This version of the Scoreboard is available on the Competition Directorate General's Internet 
side, under the following address:  

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/studies_reports/studies_reports.cfm. 

In addition, a permanent online Scoreboard consisting of a series of key indicators and a range 
of statistical information for the EU Member States is available under the same address. 

The  spring  2008  Scoreboard  will  include  in  particular  a  special  chapter  on  the  State  aid 
situation in Bulgaria and Romania. 

PART  ONE:  PROGRESS  TOWARDS  THE  EUROPEAN  STRATEGY  FOR  GROWTH  AND  JOBS 

(LISBON AGENDA) 

This chapter provides an overview of State aid granted in the EU Member States in 2006 and 
examines the underlying trends. The main purpose is to measure the extent to which Member 
States have met the call for less and better targeted aid. After the considerable fall in the level 
of  aid  at  the  end  of  the  nineties,  the  underlying  trend  was  at  the  beginning  of  this  decade 
stable rather than downward. In contrast, the past three years (2004-2006) show a moderate 
downward  trend,  with  clearly  lower  overall  aid  levels.  The  vast  majority  of  Member  States 
also continues to shift the emphasis from supporting individual companies or sectors towards 
tackling  horizontal  objectives.  This  movement  is  even  more  accentuated  in  the  EU-10 

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Bulgaria  and Romania  have  become  Member States  on 1  January  2007.  The  State  aid  expenditure of 
these countries will be included regularly as from the autumn 2008 update of the Scoreboard.  
COM(2005) 141 final, 12.4.2005 

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Member  States  as  they  continue  to  adjust  their  State  aid  policies  and  practices  to  the 
requirements under EU State aid law and policies. 

1. 

STATE AID IN ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE TERMS 

Total State aid4 granted by the Member States stood at € 67 billion in 2006. In absolute terms, 
Germany  granted  the  most  aid  (€ 20  billion)  followed  by  France  (€ 10  billion),  Italy  (€ 5.5 
billion), Spain (€ 5 billion) and the United Kingdom (€ 4 billion). 

In sectoral terms, around € 44 billion of aid was earmarked for the manufacturing and services 
sectors, € 16.6 billion for agriculture and fisheries, € 3.5 billion for coal, € 2.2 billion for the 
transport (excluding railways) sector and € 0.6 for the other non manufacturing sectors.5  

Table 1: State aid awarded in the EU Member States, 2006 

Total State aid less railways 
in billion €

Total State aid for industry 
and services (= total State 
aid less agriculture, fisheries 
and transport) in billion €

Total State aid less railways 
as % of GDP

Total State aid for industry 
and services (= total State 
aid less agriculture, fisheries 
and transport) as % of GDP

EU-25
EU-15
EU-10

Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Ireland
Greece
Spain
France
Italy
Cyprus
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Hungary
Malta
Netherlands
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Slovenia
Slovakia
Finland
Sweden
United Kingdom

66.7
61.1
5.6
1.2
0.8
1.3
20.2
0.1
1.0
0.6
4.9
10.4
5.5
0.1
0.3
0.1
0.1
1.4
0.1
1.9
2.3
2.3
1.5
0.3
0.2
2.6
3.5
4.2

47.9
44.7
3.2
0.9
0.6
1.0
16.0
0.0
0.5
0.3
3.9
7.4
3.8
0.1
0.0
0.1
0.0
0.8
0.1
1.3
1.6
1.2
1.4
0.1
0.2
0.6
2.9
3.1

0.58
0.56
0.91
0.39
0.66
0.59
0.87
0.41
0.57
0.26
0.50
0.58
0.37
0.76
1.80
0.54
0.32
1.57
2.29
0.35
0.90
0.85
0.93
0.83
0.51
1.53
1.15
0.22

0.42
0.41
0.52
0.28
0.51
0.46
0.69
0.08
0.28
0.15
0.39
0.41
0.26
0.48
0.15
0.23
0.13
0.93
1.77
0.24
0.60
0.45
0.91
0.48
0.45
0.35
0.94
0.16  

State aid as defined under Article 87(1) EC Treaty that has been granted by the EU Member States for all sectors 
except railways and has been examined by the Commission. All data are quoted at constant prices. The amounts 
of  State  aid  already  recovered  or  to  be  recovered  by  Greece  in  respect  of  Olympic  Airways  and/or  Olympic 
Airlines  are  as  yet  not fully  established  and  are  the  subject  of  several ongoing  legal  procedures  including  two 
actions taken by the Commission against Greece (Case C-369/07 and Case C-419/06). For the purposes of this 
scoreboard edition, data for Greece include only provisionally data for aid to Olympic Airways as reported by 
Greece. Source: DG Competition, DG Energy and Transport, DG Agriculture and DG Fisheries. 

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The  total  covers  aid  to  manufacturing,  services,  coal,  agriculture,  fisheries  and  part  of  the  transport 
sector  but  excludes  aid  to  the  railway  sector,  aid  for  compensation  for  services  of  general  economic 
interest due to the lack of comparable data. 
"Other non manufacturing sectors" includes aid for mining and quarrying, oil and gas extraction, aid for 
electricity, gas and water supply and aid for construction. 

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State aid measured as a percentage of GDP 

In relative terms, State aid amounted to below 0.6% of EU Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 
2006. This average hides significant disparities between Member States: the share of total aid 
to GDP ranges from 0.4% or less in Belgium, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and 
the United Kingdom to 1% or more in Latvia, Hungary, Malta, Finland and Sweden (Table 1). 
The  high  proportion  in  some  of  the  EU-10  Member  States  is  due  largely  to  pre-accession 
measures  which  are  being  phased  out  under  transitional  arrangements  or  limited  in  time.  In 
Sweden,  it  can  be  attributed  to  the  very  high  amounts  of  aid  for  environment  and  energy 
saving which represents 86% of total aid. In Finland and Latvia, the explanation can be found 
in the relatively large amount of aid to agriculture which represents almost 75% for Finland 
and around 67% in Latvia.  

Indeed,  due  to  the  particularities  associated  with  aid  to  agriculture  and  fisheries,  it  is  worth 
looking  at  total  aid  less  these  sectors  (=  total  aid  to  the  industry  and  services).  This  second 
indicator  produces  a  rather  different  ranking  of  Member  States.  For  example,  Finland  and 
Latvia  are  below  the  EU  average  with  aid  for  the  industry  and  services  standing  at 
respectively 0.35% and 0.15% of GDP. 

It is important to bear in mind that some aid measures can not be quantified and are therefore 
not  included  in  the  scoreboard  figures.6  Although  the  number  of  measures  is  limited,  the 
distortion  of  competition  is  often  very  significant  and  has  an  impact  on  the  overall  level  of 
State  aid,  e.g.,  the  unlimited  State  guarantees  previously  available  to  Electricité  de  France 
(EDF) or the German Landesbanken. Another example is the aid to France Telecom, part of 
which cannot be quantified7 and the other part may be underestimated.8 Moreover, of the 115 
recovery  decisions  adopted  since  2001,  there  are  21  cases  for  which  the  aid  can  not  yet  be 
quantified (See recovery of unlawful aid – Part Two below).  

Appreciable downward trend in the overall volume of State aid 

At  the  Stockholm  European  Council  in  2001,  the  Member  States  pledged  to  demonstrate  a 
downward  trend  in  State  aid  in  relation  to  GDP.  The  'State  aid  as  percentage  of  GDP 
indicator'  takes  into  account  the  general  economic  situation  in  the  particular  Member  State. 
The degree to which Member States have achieved the goal to reduce State aid or not can be 
measured by looking at total State aid relative to GDP over a period of one year, i.e. the trend 
from  2005  to  2006  or  by  observing  the  underlying  trend  over  the  periods  2001-2003  and 
2004-2006.  In  order  to  eliminate  as  far  as  possible  annual  fluctuations  and  the  effects  of 
delayed reporting,9 the latter option is preferred.  

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9 

For more details on not quantifiable or underestimated measures, especially in rescue and restructuring 
cases, see the feature chapter of the Autumn 2006 scoreboard, pp 32-33. 
C 13a/2003 Mesures Financières-France Telecom. 
C 13b/2003 Taxe professionnelle-France Telecom has been estimated between €798mn and €1.14bn but 
only the minimum of €798mn is included in the scoreboard totals. 
In  spite  of  the  Member  States’  obligation  (in  the  Commission  Regulation  No  794/2004  of  21  April 
2004)  to  report  State  aid  expenditure  figures  for  the  year  t-1,  some  Member  States  are  able  to  report 
figures for some measures only for year t-2. In addition, unlawfully granted State aid is included in the 
Scoreboard  data  only  after  Commission’s  decision  on  particular  unlawful  aid  case  and  retroactively 
added to the year in which the aid was granted. Therefore, overall aid levels tend to be underestimated 
for the most recent years. 

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In the EU-15,10 the downward trend of the volume of State aid11 in the end of the 1990s has 
levelled off since 2000 and fluctuated in the past years around 0.6 % of GDP or € 60 billion 
(see Table 2 below). The results show a modest downward trend in the volume of total State 
aid  for  EU-25  over  the  last  3  years,  2004  –  2006.  As  there  is  a  break  in  the  time  series  for 
agriculture  data  due  to  a  change  in  the  method  to  collect  data  in  2004,  it  is  not  possible  to 
draw  conclusions  on  a  long-term  trend  for  State  aid  levels  on  that  basis.  Therefore, 
observations on the underlying trend are based on data for total aid for industry and services 
(= total aid less agriculture, fisheries and transport). 

Total aid for industry and services shows a significant downward trend in the mid- to long-
term perspective. In relation to GDP, and during a period of steady economic growth, State 
aid decreased by 15% from 0.50% of GDP in the period 2001-2003 to 0.43% of GDP in the 
period 2004-2006 (see Table 2). Also in absolute terms, total State decreased from an annual 
average of € 53.1 billion to an annual average of € 47.6 billion in the two consecutive periods.  

This positive development can be attributed to mainly three factors: 

•  First, and in line with expectations in a period of economic growth, Member States granted 
considerably less rescue and restructuring aid, accounting for half of the decrease over the 
two periods.12 While rescue and restructuring aid accounted for 12% of total aid (or 0.06 % 
of GDP) in the period 2001 – 2003, it stood at only 4% (or 0.02% of GDP) in the years 
2004 – 2006. In absolute terms, rescue and restructuring aid decreased from € 6.2 billion to 
€ 1.8 billion. 

•  Second, state aid to the coal sector shows a continued downward trend. 

•  Third,  this  downward  trend  is  even  more  accentuated  in  the  EU-10.  Here,  pre-accession 
commitments and continued efforts after accession contributed likewise as these Member 
States continue to adjust their State aid policies and practices to the requirements under EU 
State aid law and policies. 

At the same time, aid to environmental protection has increased significantly in recent years. 
Aid for all other objectives has remained relatively stable.  

The trend of  the  overall EU-25 level of State aid does not only reflect the broader strategic 
choices or changes in national policies but is likewise influenced by a relatively small number 
of large cases (for example, restructuring aid in Germany to Bankgesellschaft Berlin (BGB), 
amounting to some € 8 billion in the years 2001 and 2002, € 4 billion for Polish coal in 2003, 
€ 1.4  billion  to  Alstom  in  France  2004,  and  € 750  million  restructuring  aid  to  BAWAG  in 
Austria 2006). 

10 

11 
12 

Only EU-15 is presented here because transport aid figures for EU-10 are not comparable for the pre-
accession period. 
Total State aid less railways. 
Rescue and restructuring aid is included in the totals for sectoral aid. See tables 9 and 10. 

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Table 2: Trend in the level of State aid in the EU Member States, 1996-2006 

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Annual 
average 
2001-03

Annual 
average 
2004-06

EU-25

Total state aid less railways in billion €

as % of GDP
Total state aid less agriculture, 
fisheries and transport in billion €
as % of GDP

EU-15

48.0
0.46

50.5
0.48

56.8
0.53

52.0
0.49

Total state aid less railways in billion €

as % of GDP
Total state aid less agriculture, 
fisheries and transport in billion €
as % of GDP

77.9
0.93

58.3
0.70

98.9
1.12

78.9
0.90

66.1
0.73

50.2
0.55

57.1
0.61

40.3
0.43

59.1
0.60

42.6
0.43

62.3
0.62

45.9
0.46

65.6
0.65

50.6
0.50

57.0
0.56

41.6
0.41

67.5
0.62

47.5
0.44

61.7
0.59

43.7
0.42

66.6
0.60

47.3
0.43

60.9
0.58

44.2
0.42

66.7
0.58

47.9
0.42

61.1
0.56

44.7
0.41

53.1
0.50

61.6
0.61

46.0
0.46

47.6
0.43

61.2
0.58

44.2
0.42  

Note:  The  exceptionally  high  figure  in  1997  can  be  largely  attributed  to  the  Credit  Lyonnais  case  in  France 
(approximately €21 bn). Similarly the relatively high figure in 2002 is due in part to the substantial guarantee 
awarded as a part of the restructuring package to Bankgesellschaft Berlin AG (C 28/2002). For the EU-10, data 
on agriculture are available for 2004, 2005 and 2006 only. Source: DG Competition, DG Energy and Transport, 
DG Agriculture and DG Fisheries. 

The EU average of State aid for industry and services expressed as percentage of GDP hides 
differences  between  Member  States.  The  sharpest  falls  can  be  observed  in  Czech  Republic, 
Cyprus  and  Malta,  largely  due  to  the  phasing  out  of  pre-accession  measures,  and  in  Poland 
due  to  the  declining  aid  to  the  coal  industry.  Ireland,  Denmark,  Spain  and  Germany 
experienced also a significant decrease. The decrease in Ireland was primarily the result of the 
lowering  of  the  Irish  Corporation  Tax13  coupled  with  an  increase  in  GDP.  In  Denmark,  the 
decline  was  mainly  due  to  the  reductions  of  several  aid  measures  for  environment  and 
training. In Spain, the decrease can mainly be explained by declining expenditure for the coal 
industry.  In  Germany  the  decrease  can  also  be  explained  by  the  diminishing  aid  to  the  coal 
industry  in  addition  to  the  above  mentioned  BGB  case.  By  contrast,  State  aid  in  relation  to 
GDP  increased  significantly  during  the  two  periods  under  review  in  two  Member  States:  in 
Sweden  the  increase  can  be  attributed  to  the  aid  for  the  environment  and  energy  saving 
measures. In Austria, it can be explained by the restructuring aid to BAWAG in 2006. 

Sectoral distribution of aid 

1.1. 

Overview 

Sectoral distribution of aid varies considerably among Member States and over time 

Although  the  data  do  not  provide  an  accurate  picture  of  the  final  recipients  of  the  aid,  they 
nevertheless give some indication as to which sectors are favoured by each Member State. In 
2006, around 65% of State aid in the Member States was earmarked for the manufacturing14 
and  services  sectors.  A  further  24%  was  directed  towards  agriculture  and  fisheries,  5%  for 

13 

14 

The Corporation Tax rate in Ireland has been lowered progressively in recent years and is 12.5% from 
2003. This has reduced the comparative value of the preferential 10% rate to the manufacturing sector, 
therefore contributing to the decline, in monetary terms, of aid to this sector. 
For the purposes of the scoreboard, aid to the manufacturing includes aid for steel, shipbuilding, other 
manufacturing  sectors,  aid  for  general  economic  development  and  aid  for  horizontal  objectives 
including research and development, SME's, environment, energy saving, employment and training for 
which the sector is not always known. As a result, data on aid to manufacturing may be overestimated. 

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coal and 3% to the transport (excluding railways) sector and the remaining 1% went to other 
non manufacturing sectors15 (Graph 1). The sectoral distribution is relatively stable over time 
with the exception of the coal sector which is clearly decreasing. 

There are significant differences between Member States in the sectors to which they direct 
aid (Table 3). Aid directed at the manufacturing and service sectors represented 80% or more 
of  overall  aid  in  Denmark,  Portugal,  Slovakia  and  Sweden.  Aid  to  the  agricultural  and 
fisheries sectors accounted for 60% or more of total aid in Estonia, Latvia and Finland, while 
the share of aid to the coal industry was relatively high in Spain16 (22%), Germany (11%) and 
Poland (7%). 

Graph 1: Total State aid by sector, EU-25, 2006 

Transport 
excluding 
railways
3%

Other non-
manufacturing
1%

Coal
5%

Agriculture and 
Fisheries
25%

Manufacturing 
and Services
66%

Note: State aid as defined under Article 87(1) EC Treaty that has been granted by Member States for all sectors 
except  railways  and  has  been  examined  by  the  Commission.  Source:  DG  Competition,  DG  Energy  and 
Transport, DG Agriculture and DG Fisheries. 

15 

16 

Other non manufacturing sectors includes aid for mining and quarrying, oil and gas extraction, aid for 
electricity, gas and water supply and aid for construction. 
For Spain, aid to the coal industry for 2006 has been estimated on the basis of notified budgets. Part of 
the  aid  was  approved  in  July  2006  (N  352/2006),  while  another  part  of  the  aid  (NN  80/2006)  is  still 
under investigation. For more information on aid to the coal industry, see the Commission Report on 
the Application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1407/2002 on State Aid to the Coal Industry, 21.5.2007, 
COM  (2007)  253  final  and  its  annex  SEC  (2007)  602.  Both  available  on  the  web  page 
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/state_aid/energy_en.htm. 

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Table 3: Sectoral distribution of aid by Member State, 2006 

Manufacturing

Services
(including 
tourism,
financial, 
media and
culture)

% of total

Million euro

Agriculture Fisheries Coal

Transport 
excluding 
railways

Other non-
manufacturing

Total

EU-25
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Ireland
Greece
Spain
France
Italy
Cyprus
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Hungary
Malta
Netherlands
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Slovenia
Slovakia
Finland
Sweden
United Kingdom

58
70
73
77
66
14
38
49
49
65
60
27
8
35
29
55
74
65
19
46
13
47
86
22
79
60

7
2
4
3
3
6
12
8
8
6
9
36
0
7
12
1
3
3
37
0
85
4
2
1
3
6

24
25
22
10
20
79
48
37
18
23
21
35
67
58
59
34
19
23
32
46
1
42
11
74
12
21

0
0
0
4
0
1
2
1
1
0
1
-
-
1
-
0
0
1
0
-
1
0
-
0
0
0

5
-
-
-
11
-
-
-
22
-
-
-
-
-
-
3
-
-
-
7
-
6
2
-
-
0

3
3
1
7
1
-
0
5
2
5
8
2
25
-
0
7
4
8
1
0
0
-
-
3
5
5

1
-
-
-
0
-
-
1
0
-
0
0
-
-
-
-
-
-
11
0
-
0
0
0
0
7

66723
1225
755
1289
20219
54
988
556
4879
10389
5511
111
291
128
110
1407
115
1865
2310
2310
1450
254
223
2552
3515
4215

Due to the rounding of figures, the percentages of some Member states do not sum up to exactly 100. Coal data 
in table 3 can differ from those published in the Commission Report on the Application of Council Regulation 
(EC) No 1407/2002 on State Aid to the Coal Industry because the 2006 data in the Report are based on Member 
States' notified  budgets  and  scoreboard  data  are  based  on  expenditure  reported  by  Member  States  to  the 
Commission. Source: DG Competition, DG Energy and Transport, DG Fisheries and DG Agriculture. 

1.2. 

State aid to the transport sector 

State  aid  to  the  transport  sector  is  governed  by  special  rules  in  the  Treaty,  as  well  as 
secondary legislation and rules of soft law. These rules are the following: 

–  Land transport (road, rail, inland waterways): Article 73 of the Treaty, as implemented 

by Regulations 1191/6917, 1107/7018 and 1192/6919; 

17 

18 

19 

Regulation (EEC) No. 1191/69 of the Council of 26 June 1969 on action by Member States concerning 
the obligations inherent in the concept of a public service in transport by rail, road and inland waterway. 
Regulation (EEC) No. 1107/70 of the Council of 4 June 1970 on the granting of aid for transport by rail, 
road and inland waterway. 
Regulation  (EEC)  No.  1192/69  on  common  rules  for  the  normalisation  of  accounts  of  railway 
undertakings  is  particularly  important  from  a  State  aid  monitoring perspective  as  it  exempts  from  the 
notification  procedure  a  number  of  different  compensations  from  public  authorities  to  railway 
undertakings. 

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13 

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–  Aviation:  Community  guidelines  on  financing  of  airports  and  start-up  aid  to  airlines 

departing from regional airports;20 

–  Maritime transport: Community guidelines on State aid to maritime transport21. 

In  the  transport  sector,  Member  States  spend  considerable  resources  for  the  provision  of 
services  of  general  economic  interest  and  on  the  construction,  the  management  and  the 
maintenance of infrastructure. 

Community  law  foresees  a  number  of  mechanisms  allowing  for  and  encouraging  the 
provision  of  services  of  general  economic  interest;  the  Commission  must,  however,  verify 
whether the public financing granted complies with the rules laid down in order to ensure that 
this financing does not distort competition. 

The  public  financing  of  transport  infrastructure  raises  more  and  more  questions  about  the 
application of the State aid rules, as many infrastructures are operated on a commercial basis 
and either by private undertakings or under public-private-partnerships. The Commission, in 
its decision practice, considers that the financing and supervision of the building of transport 
infrastructure constitutes a measure of economic policy and land planning deriving out of the 
State's sovereignty22. Nevertheless, the question arises as to whether the way a State finances 
an  infrastructure  in  the  framework  of  its  public  policy  may  amount  to  State  aid  to 
undertakings active at one or more of the following three levels: 

–  The construction of the infrastructure; 

–  The use of the infrastructure; 

–  The management and operation of the infrastructure23. 

In the EU-25, for the transport sector as a whole, excluding railways (see figures below in the 
paragraph  on  railways),  around  € 2.2  billion  of  aid  was  awarded  per  year  over  the  period 
2004-2006, a 15% increase compared to the annual average over the period 2001-2003 (€ 1.9 
billion).  

Almost 70% of total transport aid (around € 1.5 billion per year) was awarded to the maritime 
sector  during  the  period  2004-2006.  The  largest  amounts  were  given  by  Italy,  France, 
Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.  

Over the period 2004-2006, an annual average of € 173 million of aid was awarded to the air 
transport sector (Table 4). 

20 
21 
22 

23 

OJ C 312/2005 of 9.12.2005, p.1-14 
OJ C 13/2004 of 17.1.2004, p. 3-12  
See e.g. Decision in State aid case 713/1997 Rion Antirion motorway bridge, point 37 and Decision in 
State  aid  case  N  478/2004  Irish  Rail,  point  30;  Decision  N  597/2007  Thessaloniki  submerged  tunnel 
project. 
See e.g. Decision in State aid case 713/1997 Rion Antirion motorway bridge, point 39, Decision in State 
aid  case  N  60/2006,  Project  Main  Port  Development  Rotterdam,  point  39;  Decision  N  597/2007 
Thessaloniki  submerged  tunnel  project;.  Decision  in  State  aid  case  N  478/2004,  Irish  Rail,  point  26 
with further references. 

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14 

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Table 4: State aid to the transport sector (excluding railways), EU-25, 2001-2006, in 
million € 

Transport sector

Annual average 2001-2003

Annual average 2004-2006

Road and combined transport
Maritime transport
Inland water transport
Air transport
Total

Source: DG Energy and Transport 

407
1159
10
347
1922

546
1471
15
173
2205  

With  respect  to  the  different  transport  sectors,  the  following  developments  can  be 
observed: 

Land transport 

Railways 

Much of the public financing of the railways is not notified to the Commission, either because 
the financing, due to the lack of liberalisation of the sector, is not deemed by Member States 
to  constitute  State  aid  within  the  meaning  of  Article  87(1)  of  the  Treaty,  or  because  it  is 
exempted  from  notification  in  accordance  with  Regulation  1191/69  and  1192/69.  Member 
States  are  however  required  to  report  to  the  Commission  overall  public  expenditure  to  this 
sector. Disparities between Member States may reflect different interpretations of the scope of 
this annual reporting exercise (Table 5). 

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15 

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Table 5: Subsidies(1) to the railway sector, 2000-2006, in million € 

EU-25
EU-15
EU-10
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Ireland
Greece
Spain
France
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxemburg
Hungary
Netherlands
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Slovenia
Slovakia
Finland
Sweden
UK

2000
33281
33281
-
2164
-
672
9308
-
373
446
1350
6482
6246
-
-
208
-
2051
649
-
16
-
-
403
851
2061

2001
41984
41984
-
2205
-
731
9385
-
440
625
1349
8770
6839
-
-
255
-
2686
649
-
22
-
-
359
852
6817

2002
40729
40729
-
2278
-
714
9515
-
491
552
1346
9132
7236
-
-
264
-
2946
664
-
25
-
-
412
892
4261

2003
39527
38629
898
2412
239
813
9144
12
544
636
1338
7921
6006
3
0
293
451
3322
647
104
58
88
0
489
1003
4002

2004
40393
39077
1316
2057
239
813
8239
12
416
329
1370
9120
5699
15
5
310
411
2936
632
172
56
297
165
562
1167
5371

2005
42754
41469
1285
3129
264
916
8114
12
576
257
455
9912
6040
23
6
315
439
2779
533
184
64
139
218
516
1271
6592

2006
37016
35462
1554
3226
270
937
8001
12
603
275
563
10100
*6040
31
3
394
560
2687
637
310
74
145
223
467
1415
45  

(*)  2006  data  for  Italy  are  not  available  and  have,  for  comparability  reasons,  been  estimated  as  equal  to  2005 
amount. 

(1) Includes all public subsidies that have been communicated to the Commission as well as subsidies that have 
been  notified  and  authorised  by  the  Commission  under  relevant  State  aid  rules.  However  the  figures  exclude 
compensation for services of general economic interest. Source: DG Energy and Transport. 

Public transport by bus 

In the bus transport sector, the Commission is faced with similar problems as in the railway 
sector. The major part of the public financing of the bus transport services operated under a 
public service obligation is not notified to the Commission, either because the financing is not 
deemed by Member States to constitute State aid within the meaning of Article 87 (1) of the 
EC  Treaty,  or  because  it  represents  compensation  for  public  services  in  accordance  with 
Regulation  1191/69/EC.  Therefore,  the  aid  amount  reported  in  the  table  4  for  road  and 
combined transport sector can be underestimated. Following the complaints of competitors in 
the  bus  transport  sector,  the  Commission  initiated  in  2006  –  2007  formal  investigation 
procedures in Austria, Germany and Ireland; further investigations in these and other Member 
State are ongoing.  

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Road haulage 

State aid in the area of road haulage is given either in the form of restructuring aid, or in the 
form of State aid for environmental protection.  

Aviation 

The  Communication  from  the  Commission  Community  guidelines  on  financing  of  airports 
and  start-up  aid  to  airlines  departing  from  regional  airport24  (2005  guidelines)  add  to  the 
Commission's 1994 guidelines25 on the application of Article 87 and 88 of the Treaty. They 
are designed to cover all new aspects relating to the financing of airports and start-up aid for 
new routes. 

Since the entry into force of the 2005 guidelines, the Commission has adopted a number of 
positive decisions, relating to the two main types of State aid defined by the 2005 guidelines – 
State aid to the airports and start-up aid to airlines.  

The  State  aid  relating  to  airport  infrastructure  aimed  mainly  at  financing  construction, 
extension,  and  purchase  of  the  equipment  with  the  aim  to  comply  with  safety  and  security 
standards and to be able to accommodate bigger aircrafts and related increase of passengers. 
Indeed,  as  the  operation  of  the  airports  constitutes  an  economic  activity,  the  Commission 
assessed these measures in view of the State aid rules and in particular, it assessed its impact 
on  competing  airports.  In  most  of  these  cases  the  Commission  considered  that  the  planned 
investments had a positive impact on regional development, which outweighed the potentially 
negative  impact  on  competition.  Under  the  2005  guidelines,  the  Commission  has  thus  far 
authorized a total of € 121 million for airport infrastructure, and € 163 million for start-up aid 
for new routes. 

The Commission is also examining a large number of complaints concerning investment aid 
and start-up aid. In some of these files, the Commission has opened the formal investigation 
procedure.  

Building on its experience, the Commission can also draw the first conclusions as to what the 
main  problems  are  in  dealing  with  notifications  and  complaints.  With  respect  to  investment 
aid for airport infrastructure, the difficulty encountered relates in particular to the question of 
the  midterm  viability  of  the  investment  and  the  impact  on  competing  airports.  In  order  to 
assess these points, the Commission needs a business plan, and may have to open the formal 
investigation  procedure  in  the  future  in  major  cases,  in  order  to  allow  competitors  to 
comment.  In  this  respect,  there  are  interesting  questions  with  respect  to  the  definition  of 
product markets and geographic markets. 

In relation to the start up aid, most of the identified difficulties relate to the contracts with low 
cost  companies,  the  non-discriminatory  nature  of  the  aid  and  the  appropriate  assessment  of 
marketing aid and in particular the calculation of "additional costs". 

24 
25 

See the footnote n°20. 
Community guidelines on the application of Articles 92 and 93 of the EC Treaty and Article 61 of the 
EEA Agreement to State aids in the aviation sector, OJ C350 of 10 December 1994. 

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17 

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Maritime transport 

Almost 70% of total transport aid (around € 1.5 billion per year) was awarded to the maritime 
sector during the period 2004-2006. The largest amounts were given by Italy, France, Sweden 
the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. 

1.3. 

State aid to the agriculture and fisheries sectors 

The total amount of State aid awarded to the agricultural sector was estimated at € 16 billion 
in 2006. Germany (€ 4 billion), France (€ 2.4 billion) and Finland (€ 1.8 billion) reported the 
highest  figures.  The  data  are  based  on  an  annual  reporting  exercise  introduced  for  the  first 
time in 2004.  

For  2006,  expenditure  figures  by  type  of  aid  measure  (investment  aid,  environmental 
protection,  encouraging  quality  products  etc.)  used  by  the  various  Member  States  in  the 
agricultural sector show the following: in Germany, almost 46% of the aid expenditure was 
linked to investment in agricultural holdings; in France, two thirds of the aid expenditure was 
dedicated to investment in agricultural holdings. On the contrary, in Finland, aid is distributed 
above  all  among  livestock  sector  (26%),  compensation  for  less  favoured  areas  (22%)  and 
many other objectives. 

In  almost  all  Member  States,  aid  was  mainly  granted  to  sector  A1  (Crop  and  animal 
production,  hunting  and  related  service  activities)  and  through  budget  aid  measures  (grants, 
interest subsidies, guarantee fee subsidies). 

Furthermore,  a  general  analysis  of  the  measures  examined  by  the  Commission  between  1 
January 2006 and 31 December 2006 provides a useful overview of the situation in the EU-25 
Member States.  

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Table 6: Main procedure types of aid measures for the agricultural sector, EU-25 (cases 
on which a decision has been taken by the Commission in 2006) 

Me mber State

Notified aid 

Non notified aid 

Exemption agriculture

EU-25

Belgium

Czech Republic

Denmark

Germany

Estonia

Ireland

Greece

Spain

France

Italy

Cyprus

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Hungary

Malta

Netherlands

Austria

Poland

Portugal

Slovenia

Slovakia

Finland

Sweden

United Kingdom

Source: DG Agriculture

317

27

119

4

43

4

20

1

3

6

31

24

99

3

5

5

0

3

1

12

12

4

3

1

7

5

3

18

1

0

0

8

0

0

0

0

4

1

0

2

0

0

0

0

3

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

6

2

1

0

1

0

0

0

16

26

16

1

5

0

0

0

0

19

4

6

0

1

1

0

0

20

This  involved  317  new  aid  measures  which  comprise  aid  schemes  and  (rather  rare)  one-off 
support  measures  for  individual  companies.  These  new  notifications  frequently  cover  more 
than one type of aid. For example, investment aid may be combined with aid for consultancy 
costs or technical support with aid for encouraging quality products. Furthermore, there were 
27  non  notified  aid  measures  (aid  which  was  put  into  effect  in  breach  of  the  obligation  to 
notify, or before it was approved). Of the total of 344 aid measures, 100 or 30% concerned 
Italy, followed by the Czech Republic (43 / 12.5%), Spain (31 / 9%) and Germany and France 
(both with 28 / 8%). 

The  situation  is  different  as  regards  the  application  of  the  Block  Exemption  Regulation  for 
Agriculture  to  the  aid  granted  to  small  and  medium-sized  agricultural  enterprises.  Out  of  a 
total of 119 block exempted measures, France applied 26 times (22%), followed by the United 
Kingdom (20 / 17%), Netherlands (19 / 16%) and both Spain and Italy (16 / 13.5%).  

EN 

19 

   EN 

 
 
The total amount of State aid awarded to the fisheries sector was estimated at around € 287 
million  in  200626.  Spain  (€ 58.37  million),  Denmark  (€ 53.77  million),  France  (€ 43.26 
million)  and  Italy  (€ 40.2  million)  reported  the  highest  figures.  The  data  are  based  on  the 
figures received from Member States' annual reports on existing aid schemes. 

Expenditure  figures  are  not  available  by  type  of  aid  measures  used  by  the  various  Member 
States in the fisheries sector. 

Table 7: Main procedures types of aid measures for the fisheries sector, EU-25 (cases in 
which a decision has been taken by the Commission in 2006) 

Member State
EU-25
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Ireland
Greece
Spain
France
Italy
Cyprus
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Hungary
Malta
Netherlands
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Slovenia
Slovakia
Finland
Sweden
United Kingdom

Source: DG Fisheries 

Notified aid
13
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
3
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
1

Non notified aid
9
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
7

Exemption fisheries
24
0
0
0
0
3
1
0
3
0
5
0
2
0
0
0
0
4
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
2

26 

The figure includes aid granted under the "de minimis" rules. Furthermore, this figure may include for 
some Member States the part of the budget corresponding to Community funds as some of them have 
included  co-financed  measures  in  their  report  without  individualising  which  amount  was  awarded  by 
national resources and which by Community funds. 

EN 

20 

   EN 

 
 
                                                 
Out of a total of 24 exemptions, Italy submitted 5 information forms, representing 21 % of the 
total  of  information  forms  received  from  all  Member  States.  Finland  and  the  Netherlands 
submitted 4 information forms each. 

Table 8: New cases registered in 2006 

Member State
EU-25
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Ireland
Greece
Spain
France
Italy
Cyprus
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Hungary
Malta
Netherlands
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Slovenia
Slovakia
Finland
Sweden

United Kingdom

Source: DG Fisheries 

Notified aid
27
0
7
0
0
0
0
1
3
1
6
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
1

Non notified aid
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0

Exemption fisheries
24
0
0
0
0
3
1
0
3
0
5
0
2
0
0
0
0
4
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
2

1.4. 

State aid to the coal sector 

The  European  Coal  and  Steel  Community  Treaty  expired  on  23  July  2002.  Thereafter,  a 
Council Regulation  established  a  new  legal  framework for State aid to the Community coal 
industry.27  

Detailed information on aid to the coal industry has been published by the Commission in an 
exhaustive report on State aid to the coal industry28 in May 2007. 

27 

Council Regulation (EC) No 1407/2002 on State Aid to the Coal Industry (OJ L205, 2.8.2002, p. 1-8) 

EN 

21 

   EN 

 
 
                                                 
1.5. 

State aid to the steel sector 

Since the European Coal and Steel Community Treaty expired on 23 July 2002, the general 
State aid rules have been applied for the steel sector, with the exception that no investment or 
restructuring aid may be granted to steel production unless it is closure aid.29 

In  2006,  total  aid  to  the  steel  sector  amounted  to  € 148  million,  which  was  granted  by  the 
United  Kingdom  (climate  change  levy  -  € 132  million)  and  Belgium  (€ 1.52  million)  as 
environmental  aid,  the  Czech  Republic  (€ 8  million)  for  different  objectives  (R&D, 
environment, regional development) and Slovakia as employment aid (€ 6 million). There is a 
clear decreasing trend in the aid to the steel sector from an annual average of € 502 million in 
the period 2001-2003 to € 205 million in the period 2004-2006. The downward trend can be 
largely explained by the fact that some Member States (such as France and Sweden) stopped 
or  reduced  considerably  (the  Czech  Republic)  granting  State  aid  after  the  year  2003  to 
companies in the steel sector. 

1.6. 

State aid to the shipbuilding sector 

The  amount  of  State  aid  to  the  shipbuilding  sector  fell  from  an  annual  average  of  € 832 
million  for  the  period  2001-2003  to  € 342  million  for  the  period  2004-2006.  In  2006,  an 
estimated € 213 million was granted to the shipbuilding sector mainly by Germany (38% of 
the EU total), the Netherlands (15%), Denmark (14%), Poland (13%) and Malta (10%). 

2. 

STATE AID FOR HORIZONTAL OBJECTIVES 

2.1. 

Overview 

State  aid  for  horizontal  objectives,  i.e.  aid  that  is  not  granted  to  specific  sectors,  is  usually 
considered  as  being  better  suited  to  address  market  failures  and  thus  less  distortive  than 
sectoral  and  ad  hoc  aid.  Research  and  development,  safeguarding  the  environment,  energy 
saving, support to small and medium-sized enterprises, employment creation, the promotion 
of  training  and  aid  for  regional  economic  development  are  the  most  prominent  horizontal 
objectives  pursued  with  State  aid.  Due  to  data  constraints,30  this  section  looks  at  horizontal 
objectives in the context of total aid for industry and services. 

In 16 Member States, more than 90% of all the aid awarded in 2006 was for horizontal 
objectives 

On  average,  aid  earmarked  for  horizontal  objectives,  accounted  for  85%  of  total  aid  for 
industry and services in 2006. This compares to 83% in 2005, 76% in 2004 and around 50% 

28 

29 

30 

Commission Report on the Application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1407/2002 on State Aid to the 
Coal Industry and Commission staff working document 
Aid under the Commission Regulation (EC) No 70/2001 of 12 January 2001 on State aid to SMEs (OJ 
L 10, 13.01.2001, p. 33-42) remains possible with the exception of larger projects as defined in Art. 6 of 
the said SME-Regulation. 
Transport  and  Fisheries  aggregated  data  cannot  be  broken  down  by  objective.  Agriculture  data  have 
been  collected  by  objective  only  since  2004  and  this  information  cannot  be  used  yet.  In  addition, 
primary objectives for agriculture are specific to this sector and could not be integrated in this general 
overview. 

EN 

22 

   EN 

 
                                                                                                                                                         
in the mid Nineties. In welcoming this trend, one should be aware that much of the increase in 
horizontal  aid  can  be  attributed  to  an  increase  in  tax  exemptions  for  the  environment  and 
energy  saving,  in  particular  for  energy  intensive  industries.  The  three  main  horizontal 
objectives  were  environment  and  energy  saving  (29%  of  total  aid),  regional  economic 
development (19%) and R&D (14%) – see Table 9.  

The  remaining  15%  was  aid  directed  at  specific  sectors:  coal  (7%),  services  (5%)31  and 
manufacturing (2%) including aid to rescue and restructure ailing firms. In interpreting these 
figures, however, it is important to bear in mind that some aid measures can not be quantified 
(see  section  1  above).  Another  factor  that  keeps  the  volume  of  sectoral  and  individual  aid 
artificially low is that Commission decisions which follow an unlawful aid procedure32 tend to 
refer to aid that was granted up to several years previously and involve ad hoc awards of aid 
to individual companies. Although the data for all years are adjusted retrospectively when the 
Commission takes its decision, the overall level is underestimated. 

In  16  Member  States  (Belgium,  Czech  Republic,  Denmark,  Estonia,  Greece,  France,  Italy, 
Cyprus,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Luxembourg,  the  Netherlands,  Slovakia,  Finland,  Sweden,  the 
United Kingdom), 90% or more of all the aid awarded in 2006 was earmarked for horizontal 
objectives. In 2005, Cyprus had only 45% of horizontal aid and has now 96%. This is due to 
the expiry of an important tax exemption scheme for sectoral development,33 accounting for 
half of total aid in Cyprus.  

In  another  group  of  five  Member  States  (Germany,  Spain,  Ireland,  Poland,  Slovenia),  the 
share  of  horizontal  aid  was  between  70%  and  90%  while  in  several  others  the  share  was 
significantly  lower:  Hungary  (52%),  Austria  (51%),  Portugal  (14%),  Malta  (7%),  The  low 
share  of  horizontal  aid  (and  thus  relatively  high  share  of  sectoral  aid)  in  Malta  can  be 
explained  with  a  tax  relief  measure  under  Business  Promotion  Act,34  while  in  Portugal  it  is 
due to a large regional aid tax scheme in Madeira which in practice benefits a limited number 
of sectors. In 2005 and 2006, Hungary granted sectoral aid mainly through an Investment tax 
benefit scheme. As for Austria, it usually had more than 90% horizontal aid in previous years. 
Its position in 2006 is due to restructuring aid granted to BAWAG.  

Large  disparities  between  Member  States  in  the  share  of  aid  awarded  to  various 
horizontal objectives 

When making comparisons between Member States, it is important to bear in mind that aid 
measures are classified according to their primary objective at the time the aid was approved 
and  not  according  to  the  final  recipients  of  the  aid.  Notwithstanding  the  measurement 
difficulties, the data do give an indication as to which horizontal objectives are favoured by 
Member  States  (see  Table  9).  The  largest  proportion  of  aid  was  directed  exclusively  to  the 
environment  and  energy  saving  objectives  (29%  of  the  total  State  aid  for  industry  and 
services),  which  were  extensively  supported  by  the  Nordic  countries,  Germany,  the 
Netherlands  and  the  United  Kingdom  (86%  of  the  total  aid  in  Sweden,  68%  in  the 

31 

32 
33 
34 

These percentages exclude those measures with a horizontal objective that are nevertheless earmarked 
for the manufacturing and services sectors. 
Such cases are denoted by a ‘NN’ case number. 
Special tax regime under the International Business Enterprises Act.  
MT/6/2002. 

EN 

23 

   EN 

 
                                                 
Netherlands,  50%  in  Germany,  36%  in  Finland,  35%  in  the  United  Kingdom  and  34%  in 
Denmark). 

The second most favoured horizontal objective was regional development (19% of total aid), 
which was mainly supported by EU-10 and Mediterranean countries (76% of the total aid in 
Slovakia,  67%  in  Latvia,  65%  in  Greece,  44%  in  the  Czech  Republic,  29%  in  Spain).  An 
additional  14%  of  the  aid  went  to  research and  development  activities,  which  was  favoured 
most by Luxembourg (29%), Estonia (28%), Finland and the Czech Republic (27%), France 
(23%), the Netherlands (21%), Belgium (20%) and Italy (19%). 

Other objectives were supported to a lesser extent: small and medium-sized enterprises (11% 
of  total  aid),35  employment  (7%),  training  (1%)  and  other  horizontal  objectives  (4%)  which 
include  objectives  such  as  commerce  and  internationalization,  innovation,  culture,  heritage 
conservation, social aid, natural disasters and risk capital.  

The relative importance of objectives is slightly different in the EU-10 countries where aid to 
the environment and energy saving does not come in the "top 3". The most favoured objective 
is  aid  for  Regional  development  (34%  of  total  aid  for  industry  and  services),  followed  by 
employment aid (17%), R&D (9%) and SME's (9%). The position of employment in EU-10 is 
due mainly to a Polish scheme for disabled people under the block exemption regulation.36 

35 

36 

This  figure  only  captures  aid  exclusively  earmarked  for  SMEs.  In  addition,  risk  capital  aid  which 
accounts for 0.6 % of total aid (included in "other horizontal objectives") is also exclusively directed to 
SMEs.  Total  aid  granted  to SMEs  is  much  higher  since  most  schemes  for  other  horizontal  objectives 
like  environment  and  energy  saving,  regional  development,  research  and  development  are  open  to 
companies regardless of their size. 
XE 11/2004  

EN 

24 

   EN 

 
                                                 
Table 9: State aid for horizontal objectives and sectoral aid as % of total aid, 2006 

Horizontal Objectives

Sectoral aid (2)

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EU-25

EU-10

Belgium

Czech Republic

Denmark

Germany

Estonia

Ireland

Greece

Spain

France

Italy

Cyprus

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Hungary

Malta

Netherlands

Austria

Poland

Portugal (3)

Slovenia

Slovakia

Finland

Sweden

United Kingdom

(1)  Aid  for  general  regional  development  not  elsewhere  classified.  (2)  Aid  for  specific  sectors  awarded  under 
measures for which there was no horizontal objective as well as aid for rescue and restructuring. (3) Aid which 
continues to be paid out under the aid scheme E 19/94 Zona Franca da Madeira (OJ C 290, 3.10. 1996, p. 13), as 
reviewed by the Commission, is classified as sectoral aid. Aid granted under the aid scheme N 222/A/2002 Aid 
scheme for Zona Franca da Madeira for the period 2003-2006 (OJ C 65, 19.3.2003, p.23 as corrected by OJ C 
134, 7.6. 2003, p. 10) is classified as regional aid. Source: DG Competition. 

2.2. 

Trend in State aid for horizontal objectives and sectoral objectives 

In the mid-1990s, when State aid levels were much higher, the share of total aid granted for 
horizontal  objectives  was  around  50%.  In  line  with  the  commitments  undertaken  at  the 
various  European  Councils,  Member  States  have  however  continued  to  redirect  aid  towards 
such  horizontal  objectives.  It  is  encouraging  to  see  that  all  EU-10  Member  States  are 
progressively redirecting aid towards horizontal objectives. The share of horizontal objectives 
in total aid for industry and services increased in the EU-10 Member States by 36 percentage 
points between the two three-year periods 2001-2003 and 2004-2006, compared to an overall 
increase in the EU-25 of 17 percentage points in this period (see Table 10 below). 

This upward trend in the EU-25 was almost exclusively the result of a significant increase in 
aid  for  environmental  and  energy  saving  objectives  (+  11.6  points).  Employment  aid  (+  2.6 
points)  and  research  and  development  (+  1.7  points)  increased  slightly  while  sectoral  aid 
decreased,  in  particular  for  services  (including  financial  services)  (-8.4  points)  and  – 
attributable only to some Member States – coal (- 7.2 points). The decrease in sectoral aid to 
services was particularly significant in the Czech Republic, where € 2 billion restructuring aid 

EN 

25 

   EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
was awarded to the banking sector in 2003 and in Germany (BGB in 2001 and 2002). Aid to 
the coal industry fell, most significantly, by 44.1 percentage points in Poland. For the Union 
as a whole, there was no significant change in the share of aid for other horizontal objectives 
such as regional aid, SME and training. The following graph illustrates this evolution. 

Graph 2: Trend in share of primary objectives as % of total aid (2004-2006 compared to 
2001-2003) 

Research &
Development

Regional
development 

SME

40

30

20

10

0

Training

Employment 

Aid objectives
EU-25, 2001-2003

Aid objectives
EU-25, 2004-2006

Environment/
energy saving

Other horizontal
objectives

Total
sectoral aid 

Source: DG Competition 

The clear positive trend was observed, to varying degrees, in the majority of Member States. 
The  share  of  horizontal  aid  increased  more  than  the  average  (+17  points)  in  7  countries, 
particularly in 5 EU-10 countries: the Czech Republic (+78.2points), Lithuania (+73.6 points), 
Latvia  (+51.7  points),  Poland  (+30.8  points)  and  Cyprus  (+28.5  points).  The  remarkable 
increase in these countries can mainly be explained by an increase in regional aid (the Czech 
Republic,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Poland),  employment  aid  (Poland),  aid  to  SME's  (Lithuania, 
Latvia)  and  aid  for  R&D  (Czech  Republic).  The  two  other  Member  States  with  significant 
increases  in  the  share  of  horizontal  aid  were  Ireland  (+26.2  points)  and  Germany  (+20.4 
points).  Ireland  spent  more  on  aid  to  SME's  (+9.8  points,  in  particular  in  the  hotels  and 
tourism sector) and on aid for research and development (+ 4.8 points), while the increase in 
Germany  can  be  largely  explained  by  a  shift  towards  aid  for  the  environment  and  energy 
saving.  

In contrast, the share of horizontal aid in total aid decreased in Austria (-21.8 points) because 
of the large amount of restructuring aid awarded to BAWAG37 in 2006. Also Denmark (-2.4 
points),  Belgium  (-0.7  points)  and  Sweden  (-0.4  points)  saw  a  slightly  decreasing  share  of 

37 

C 50/2006 (NN 68/2006) Restructuring aid to BAWAG (decision 27.6.2007). 

EN 

26 

   EN 

 
 
                                                 
horizontal aid, with horizontal aid however still accounting for more than 95% of total aid in 
these three Member States.  

Over  the  period  under  review,  there  were  appreciable  increases  in  the  share  of  total  aid  for 
environmental  and  energy  saving  in  Sweden  (+27.8  points),  Germany  (+19.3  points),  the 
Netherlands (+17.5 points) and Lithuania (+10.6 points). For the EU-10, the most significant 
change was in regional aid (+ 18.7 points), especially in the Czech Republic (+ 41.2 points), 
Latvia (+37.2 points) and Lithuania (+31.5 points). 

Table 10: Trend in share of primary objectives in total aid between 2001-2003 and 2004-
2006 as percentage point difference 

Horizontal Objectives

Sectoral aid (2)

s
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4.5
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0.4
0.2
2.8
10.6
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22.4
-1.8
5.6
-0.6
-8.1
-0.5
0.4
0.3

EU-25

Eu-10

Belgium

Czech Republic

Denmark

Germany

Estonia

Ireland

Greece

Spain

France

Italy

Cyprus

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Hungary

Malta

Netherlands

Austria

Poland

Portugal 

Slovenia

Slovakia

Finland

Sweden

United Kingdom

Source: DG Competition 

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53101
7058
873
2430
1406
18745
10
663
433
4913
6287
5479
298
28
52
59
855
172
901
660
2897
1281
164
151
448
676
3219

47577
3382
777
456
1102
15485
12
445
307
3771
7403
4388
115
24
39
46
812
112
1124
1106
1446
1362
140
227
569
2628
3683

(1)  Aid  for  general  regional  development  not  elsewhere  classified.  (2)  Aid  for  specific  sectors  awarded  under 
measures  for  which  there  was  no  horizontal  objective  as  well  as  aid  for  rescue  and  restructuring.  Source:  DG 
Competition. 

EN 

27 

   EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2.3. 

State aid for research and development (R&D)38 

Investment in R&D is a crucial factor to strengthen the competitiveness of the EU economy 
and to ensure sustainable growth. The Barcelona European Council of March 2002 recognised 
this by setting the objective for expenditure on R&D to 3% of GDP by 2010. Two thirds of 
this expenditure should  be funded by  the private sector. The spring 2004 European Council 
stressed in particular that besides public funding,  increased  private funding of  investment is 
crucial to achieve a sustainable level of 3% and accorded priority status to the strengthening 
of business investment in R&D. 

National  governments  have  a  range  of  measures  to  choose  from  to  fund  and  consequently 
trigger R&D, the exact range and balance of which depend on the national context and form 
the policy mix. These public measures might contain State aid that could distort competition 
by  favouring  some  enterprises  over  others.  On  the  other  hand,  State  aid  may  in  certain 
circumstances be the best available option to provide incentives triggering additional private 
R&D investment. The Commission thus tries to strike a balance through the application of the 
framework  on  R&D  aid  thereby  ensuring  that  R&D  is  furthered  to  the  largest  extent  while 
minimising distortions of competition.  

Figures  for  2005  show  that  investment  in  R&D  is  not  sufficient  to  meet  the  Barcelona 
objectives: for the EU-25 as a whole, R&D investment stood at 1.85% of GDP, Sweden and 
Finland  being  the  only  Member  States  to  reach  the  3%  level  with  3.86%  and  3.48% 
respectively. Drawing conclusions from the so far sluggish development of R&D investment, 
it  is  clear  that  with  growth  remaining  at  the  current  level,  the  European  economy  will  not 
achieve  the  Barcelona  targets  by  2010.  Rather,  growth  needs  to  be  accelerated  and  new 
impetus given to investment in R&D. 

As  regards  State  aid  to  R&D,  total  expenditure  stood  at  € 6.7  billion  in  2006.  After  a 
significant  increase  in  2001,  the  level  of  R&D  aid  has  remained  rather  stable,  but  shows  a 
slight  upward  trend  in  the  most  recent  years  (+  1.8%  -  see  Table  11).  State  aid  to  R&D 
represents  a  relatively  small  share  in  public  funding  (EU-wide,  0.06%  of  GDP  in  2006) 
although there are significant differences between Member States. In five Member States the 
R&D aid expenditure relative to the GDP in 2006 was above the average mark of 0.06% of 
GDP: Czech Republic (0.14% of GDP), Finland (0.10% of GDP), France (0.09%), Germany 
(0.08%), and Hungary (0.07%). 

38 

Innovation aid measures are included in chapter 2.2. 

EN 

28 

   EN 

 
                                                 
Table 11: State aid for research and development (R&D) 

Aid to Research & 
Development      
(in million €), 2006

Share of R&D aid 
in total aid, annual 
average 2004-2006

Share of R&D aid in 
total aid   (% point 
difference 2001-2003 
and 2004-2006)

Share of R&D aid 
to GDP (in %), 2006

as a percentage of 
GDP in 2005

of which percentage 
financed by 
government

Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (1)

Gross domestic 
public expenditure 
on R&D as a 
percentage of GDP 
in 2005 (2)

Italy

Spain

EU-25

Latvia

France

Ireland

Greece

Cyprus

Estonia

Belgium

Denmark

Germany

Czech Republic

1.68
1.19
21.60
0.42
1.15
8.33
4.80
2.37
5.85
-0.53
4.22
2.73
-
6.48
11.52
2.17
0.03
-4.77
-22.68
1.26
0.48
-2.28
-1.79
-6.06
-8.37
-4.30
United Kingdom
(1) Source: Eurostat, (2) Calculations based on Eurostat data, (*) 2004 data, (**) 2003 data, (***) 2002 data 

34.7
**23.5
40.9
**27.1
*30.4
*44.1
32.9
**46.4
*41.0
*37.6
n.a.
*63.7
46
62.7
11.2
49.4
***59.8
**36.2
36.4
60.7
**60.1
27.2
57
*26.3
**23.5
*32.8

12.80
21.34
23.25
4.31
10.36
23.37
11.90
2.97
13.91
19.27
17.53
3.15
-
7.42
24.88
4.96
0.03
22.92
11.67
2.25
1.25
16.42
1.21
26.96
3.42
16.78

1.85
1.82
1.42
2.44
2.51
0.94
1.25
0.64
1.12
2.13
*1.10
0.4
0.57
0.76
1.56
0.94
0.61
*1.78
2.36
0.57
0.81
1.22
0.51
3.48
3.86
*1.73

6685
176
155
76
1809
3
69
7
593
1688
726
4
-
6
13
61
0
263
157
33
6
20
5
161
107
550

0.06
0.06
0.14
0.03
0.08
0.02
0.04
0.00
0.06
0.09
0.05
0.02
-
0.02
0.04
0.07
0.00
0.05
0.06
0.01
0.00
0.06
0.01
0.10
0.03
0.03

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Lithuania

Slovenia

Portugal

Slovakia

Hungary

Sweden

Finland

Austria

Poland

Malta

0.64
0.43
0.58
0.66
0.76
0.41
0.41
0.30
0.46
0.80
n.a.
0.25
0.26
0.48
0.17
0.46
0.36
0.64
0.86
0.35
0.49
0.33
0.29
0.92
0.91
0.57

More than € 12 bn new aid to research, development and innovation approved under the 
new R&D&I framework  

The new Community Framework for State aid for Research and Development and Innovation 
(OJ C 323, 30.12.2006) entered into force on 1 January 2007, replacing the 1996 Framework 
for  State  aid  for  R&D.  The  new  Framework  follows  the  logic  of  the  State  Aid  Action  Plan 
(SAAP) by, on the one hand, allowing for new types of aid for innovation purposes whilst, on 
the other hand, introducing a more refined economic approach for large sums of aid. 

Member States have agreed to adapt their existing aid schemes by 31 December 2007 in order 
to  make  them  compatible  with  the  new  framework.  All  notifications  pending  on  1  January 
2007  and  all  subsequent  notifications  are  assessed  under  the  new  framework.  Until  30 
November 2007, the Commission approved 42 schemes and ad hoc cases in favour of R&D&I 
on  the  basis  of  the  new  Framework  with  a  total  budget  of  € 12186  million.  15  of  those 
schemes  involved  innovation  aid,  thus  exploiting  the  expansion  of  activities  eligible  for  aid 
provided by the new Framework 

EN 

29 

   EN 

 
In  addition,  the  Commission  completed  a  more  detailed  assessment  of  eight  large39 
applications of approved R&D aid schemes, on which it adopted decisions as depicted in the 
following table: 

Table 12: Large cases of aid for R&D for which the Commission completed an in depth 
assessment 

Aid 
number 

Name 
project 

of 

Member 
State 

Aid 
amount 

Date 
decision 

of 

Approval 
or opening 

N 674/06 

NeoVal 

France 

C 9/07 

TRENT 1000 

Spain 

N 854/06 

TVMSL 

France 

N 887/06 

Bernin 2010 

France 

N 89/07 

HOMES 

France 

N 185/07 

NANOSMART  France 

N 349/07 

OSIRIS 

France 

C 51/07 

VHD 

France 

26.49 

€ 
million 

27.85 

€ 
million 

37.57 

€ 
million 

14.3 

€ 
million 

39.10 

€ 
million 

21.02.07 

approval 

21.03.07 

opening 

11.05.07 

approval 

11.07.07 

approval 

12.09.07 

approval 

€ 
million 

€ 
million 

€ 
million 

80 

12.09.07 

approval 

32 

10.10.07 

approval 

96 

13.11.07 

opening 

This  detailed  assessment  examines  whether  a  market  failure  exists,  whether  aid  can  be 
considered  an  appropriate  instrument  to  remedy  the  market  failure,  it  examines  whether  the 
aid  has  an  incentive  effect  and  whether  the  aid is  necessary  to  realise  the  aided  project  and 
whether it is proportionate; the distortive effects of the aid and its expected effects on trade 
are also examined and the positive and negative effects are then balanced in the Community 
interest.  Such  an  assessment  obviously  is  more  demanding,  both  for  the  Member  State  in 
question and for the Commission, than the more summary tests carried out under the former 
framework.40  

However, the first year of application has shown that a good preparation by the Member State 
and  a  fruitful  co-operation  with  the  Commission  can  produce  decisions  upon  notification 
within a timeframe very similar to what was observed under the old framework. 

39 

40 

For  predominantly  fundamental  research  projects:  aid  to  an  undertaking  above  €  20  million,  for 
predominantly industrial research projects: aid to an undertaking above € 10 million, for predominantly 
experimental development projects: aid to an undertaking above € 7.5 million. 
Aid sums over € 5 million for projects exceeding € 25 million. 

EN 

30 

   EN 

 
                                                 
Risk capital aid 

From the entry into force of the Community Guidelines on State aid to promote Risk Capital 
investments  in  small  and  medium-sized  enterprises  (OJ  C  194,  18.08.2006)  and  up  to  30 
November 2007, the Commission approved 16 schemes in favour of Risk Capital with a total 
budget  of  € 1837  million.  It  opened  investigations  regarding  one  scheme  with  a  budget  of 
€ 130  million.  This  Framework  also  follows  the  line  of  the  SAAP  by  distinguishing  safe 
harbours,  which  allow  for  a  light  assessment,  and  derogations  for  which  a  more  detailed 
analysis is called for. 

2.4. 

State aid supporting regional development and cohesion 

Each Member State targets part of  its  State aid towards the least developed regions, the so-
called ‘assisted regions’. For the Union as a whole, an estimated € 11.9 billion of aid41 was 
earmarked exclusively for assisted ‘a’ regions42 in 2006. With the exception of Cyprus, and 
the  cities  of  Prague  and  Bratislava  which  qualify  for  assistance  at  ‘c’  level,43  the  entire 
territories  of  the  EU-10  Member  States  are  eligible  at  ‘a’  level.  Although  a  number  of  aid 
measures in these countries are not earmarked for a specific region, the aid is thus deemed to 
be ‘reserved for’ assisted regions. 

The EU-wide figure of € 11.9 billion represented 25% of total aid (less agriculture, fisheries 
and  transport  for  which  a  regional  breakdown  is  not  available).  Disparities  between  the 
Member States in the levels of aid reserved for assisted ‘a’ regions (Table 13) reflect not only 
differences in regional policy but also the size of each country’s eligible population as well as 
the extent to which each Member State grants aid at a sub-central level. 

41 

42 

43 

This  figure  includes  all  aid  specifically  earmarked  for  assisted  ‘a’  regions  regardless  of  the  overall 
objective of the aid. However, due to an absence of data on the final beneficiaries of the aid, it is not 
possible  to  quantify  the  amount  of  aid  granted  through  nation-wide  schemes  from  which  assisted 
regions will also clearly benefit. 
Article 87(3)(a) provides that aid “to promote the economic development of areas where the standard of 
living  is  abnormally  low  or  where  there  is  serious  underemployment”  may  be  considered  compatible 
with the common market. The ‘a’ regions are largely identical to the Objective 1 regions under the EU 
Structural Funds. 
Article 87(3)(c) 

EN 

31 

   EN 

 
                                                 
Table 13: State aid specifically earmarked for assisted ‘a’ regions, 2006 

Total state aid for 
industry and services, 
mio €

Aid for assisted 'a' 
regions, mio €

Aid for assisted 'a' 
regions as a percentage 
of total aid for industry 
and services

EU-25
Czech Republic
Germany
Estonia
Ireland
Greece
Spain
France
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Hungary
Malta
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Slovenia
Slovakia
Finland
United Kingdom

47903
584
16003
11
491
319
3861
7382
3843
25
54
833
89
1551
1230
1418
147
199
590
3096

11932
235
2112
11
366
319
1528
2228
1124
25
53
833
89
13
1230
1261
147
129
1
231

25
40
13
100
74
100
40
30
29
100
100
100
100
1
100
89
100
65
0
7  

Note:  There  are  no  assisted  ‘a’  regions  in  Belgium,  Denmark,  Cyprus,  Luxembourg,  the  Netherlands  and 
Sweden. For Czech Republic, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia, all measures qualify for either ‘a’ or ‘c’ status. 
The  figures  in  the  table  above  refer  to  those  measures  which  were  specifically  earmarked  for  ‘a’  regions.  In 
Cyprus, all measures qualify for ‘c’ assisted status. All data exclude agriculture, fisheries and transport for which 
a  regional  breakdown  is  not  available.  It  is  therefore  not  possible  to  measure  aid  to  assisted  ‘a’  regions  as  a 
proportion of total State aid. Community funds and instruments are excluded. 

Source: DG Competition. 

3. 

AID AWARDED UNDER THE BLOCK EXEMPTION REGULATIONS (BER) 

Council Regulation on the application of Articles 92 and 93 to certain categories of horizontal 
State  aid  (Enabling  Regulation)44  aimed  at  prioritisation  and  simplification  in  the  state  aid 
field with an intended threefold effect: 

•  In  areas  where  the  Commission  has  sufficient  experience  to  define  general  compatibility 
criteria, Member States would be able to implement aid that does not raise concerns as to 
its compatibility without further proceedings before the Commission. 

•  Due  to  the  direct  applicability  of  regulations  in  the  Member  States  (Article  249  EC), 
compliance  with  the  BER  could  be  ensured  through  private  enforcement  before  national 
courts. 

44 

Council Regulation (EC) No 994/98 of 7 May 1998 on the application of Articles 92 and 93 (now 87 
and  88  respectively)  of  the  Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community  to  certain  categories  of 
horizontal State aid, (OJ L 142, 14.05.1998, p. 1-4). 

EN 

32 

   EN 

 
 
                                                 
•  BER enable the Commission to concentrate its resources on the most distortive cases.45 

On  the  basis  of  the  Enabling  Regulation,  block  exemptions  for  aid  to  SMEs,  training  aid, 
employment aid, certain types of aid in the fisheries sector and aid to SMEs in the agricultural 
sector,  have  come  into  force  over  the  past  few  years.  The  block  exemption  regulation  on 
SMEs was amended in February 2004 as regards the extension of its scope to include aid for 
research and development.46  

At  the  end  of  2006,  the  Commission  adopted  two  additional  block  exemption  regulations 
which will apply from 2007 to 2013, the same period as for the next programming period for 
EU structural funds. These are: 

•  Regulation  1628/2006  on  regional  investment  aid47  following  which  Member 
States  will  no  longer  have  to  notify  regional  investment  aid  schemes  to  the 
Commission if they fulfil the conditions set out in the Regulation, and 

•  Regulation  1857/2006  on  State  aid  to  SMEs  active  in  the  production  of 
agricultural  products  and  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No  70/200148  (for  SMEs 
active in the processing and marketing of agricultural products) which replaces the 
previous BER in the agricultural sector. 

Furthermore,  the  period  of  application  of  Regulations  (EC)  No  2204/2002  on  State  aid  for 
employment, (EC) No 70/2001 on State aid for small and medium sized enterprises and (EC) 
No  68/2001  on  training  aid  have  been  extended  until  30  June  200849  to  allow  for  the 
necessary period of preparation of a future general block exemption Regulation.50 

45 

46 

47 

48 

49 

50 

Evaluation  report  on  the  application  of  the  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  994/98  of  7  May  1998 
regarding  the  application  of  Articles  87  (ex-Article  92)  and  88  (ex-Article  93)  of  the  EC  Treaty  to 
certain  categories  of  horizontal  State  aid,  pursuant  to  Article  5  of  this  Regulation  (COM/2006/0831 
final), 21.12.2006, p. 3. 
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  70/2001  of  12  January  2001  on  State  aid  to  SMEs  (OJ  L  10, 
13.01.2001, p. 33-42) and No 364/2004 of 25 February 2004 amending Regulation (EC) No 70/2001 as 
regards the extension of its scope to include aid for research and development (OJ L 63, 28.02.2004, 
p. 22-29); 
Commission Regulation (EC) No 68/2001 of 12 January 2001 on training aid (OJ L 10, 13.01.2001, p. 
20-29)  and  No  363/2004  of  25  February  2004  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No  68/2001  (OJ  L  63, 
28.02.2004, p. 20-21); 
Commission Regulation (EC) No 2204/2002 of 5 December 2002 on State aid for employment (OJ L 
337, 13.12.2002, p. 3-14); 
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1/2004  of  23  December  2003  on  State  aid  to  SMEs  active  in  the 
production, processing and marketing of agricultural products (OJ L 1, 03.01.2004, p. 1-16); 
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1595/2004  of  8  September  2004  on  State  aid  to  SME  active  in  the 
production, processing and marketing of fisheries products (OJ L 291 of 14.09.2004, p. 3-11).  
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1628/2006  of  24  October  2006  on  State  aid  to  national  regional 
investment aid (OJ L 302, 01.11.2006, p. 29-40). 
Commission Regulation (EC) No 1857/2006 of 15 December 2006 on State aid to SMEs active in the 
production  of  agricultural  products  and  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No  70/2001(OJ  L  358  of 
16.12.2006, p. 3-21). 
Commission  Regulation  EC  No  1976/2006  of  20  December  2006  amending  Regulations  (EC) 
No 2204/2002,  (EC)  No 70/2001  and  (EC)  No 68/2001  as  regards  the  extension  of  the  periods  of 
application (OJ L 368 of 23.12.2006, p. 85-86). 
See Part III, 7. Draft legislation, p. 40. 

EN 

33 

   EN 

 
                                                 
 
 
 
 
3.1. 

Number of block exempted measures introduced by Member States 

Experience has shown that the objectives of the Enabling Regulation have been largely met,51 
with  Member  States  able  to  introduce  almost  1700  block  exempted  measures  in  the  period 
2001 – 2006. This has been accompanied by a significant reduction in the number of notified 
measures for these types of aid. In 2006 alone, the Commission has received more than 400 
information forms on newly introduced BER measures (see Table 14). 

Table 14: Number of measures for which information forms were submitted under the 
State aid block exemption regulations, 2001- 30.9.2007, EU-27 

Type of 
State aid 
block 
exemption

SME
Training
Employment
Regional 
investment
Agriculture
Fish
Total

Year

2001

2002

2003

2004 

2005

2006

102
48

123
80

139
55
8

150

203

202

149
79
21

72
1
322

197
68
26

88
22
401

2007 
(30.9.07)

Total 
number 
2001-
30.9.2007

246
86
27
154

307
0
820

1139
473
117
154

586
47
2516

183
57
35

119
24
418

Note: The table excludes cases withdrawn. Figures for the EU-10 are included as of 1May 2004, for Bulgaria 
and Romania as of 1 January 2007. Source: DG Competition, DG Agriculture, DG Fish 

In  the  first  three  quarters  of  2007,  Member  States  informed  the  Commission  that  they 
implemented an additional number of more than 800 block exempted measures, bringing the 
total  number  of  block  exempted  measures  to  more  than  2500  since  the  adoption  of  the  first 
state aid exemption regulation in 2001. 

The reason for this significant increase is threefold: 

First,  many  state  aid  measures  are  co-financed  by  EU  structural  funds.  Member  States 
therefore tend to introduce a significant number of new state aid block exemption measures at 
the beginning of a structural funds programming period (now 2007 – 2013). This concerns in 
particular measures for aid to SMEs (246) and aid to training (86). 

Second, the Commission observes a high take-up rate for the new possibility to block exempt 
regional investment aid (154 new measures). In particular Spain (33), Austria (23), the United 
Kingdom  (16),  the  Czech  Republic  (13)  and  Hungary  and  Poland  (each  10)  informed  the 
Commission of considerable numbers of block exempted regional aid measures. 

51 

Evaluation  report  on  the  application  of  the  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  994/98  of  7  May  1998 
regarding  the  application  of  Articles  87  (ex-Article  92)  and  88  (ex-Article  93)  of  the  EC  Treaty  to 
certain  categories  of  horizontal  State  aid,  pursuant  to  Article  5  of  this  Regulation  (COM/2006/0831 
final), 21.12.2006, p. 11. 

EN 

34 

   EN 

 
 
                                                 
Third,  the  new  Regulation  1857/2006  on  State  aid  to  SMEs  active  in  the  production  of 
agricultural  products  and  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No  70/2001  (for  SMEs  active  in  the 
processing  and  marketing  of  agricultural  products)  has  been  approved  in  the  agricultural 
sector to replace the previous BER. As a result, the total number of measures communicated 
by the Member States through this exemption in the field of agriculture has highly increased. 
By  30  September  2007,  Member  States  had  informed  on  the  implementation  of  307  block 
exempted measures (compared to 92 put into effect at the same date in 2006, see Table 14). 
As  a  further  consequence  the  number  of  measures  being  notified  for  these  types  of  aid  to 
SMEs has fallen considerably during 2007 as Member States increasingly use the exemption. 
The data on this question will be analysed in the Scoreboard spring 2008 update. 

Exemptions for state aid measures to SMEs active in the fisheries sector are not possible in 
2007.52  

3.2. 

Expenditure under block exempted measures 

As regards expenditure, an estimated € 3 billion was awarded in 2006 under the three block 
exemption  regulations  for  SMEs  in  the  manufacturing  and  services  sector,  training  and 
employment.  Aid  to  SMEs  accounted  for  € 1.9  billion,  while  € 0.6  billion  were  spent  for 
training  aid  and  another  € 0.6  billion  for  aid  to  employment.  In  2006,  four  Member  States 
accounted  for  more  than  75%  of  total  expenditure.  Italy  made  up  for  36%  of  the  total 
expenditure, followed by Poland (20%), Germany (13%) and the United Kingdom (9%) (see 
Table 15). 

52 

BER for aid to SMEs active in the fisheries sector will possibly be adopted during the first quarter of 
2008. The Draft Commission Regulation on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to 
State aid to small and medium-sized enterprises active in the production, processing and marketing of 
fisheries products is available in OJ C 248 of 23.10.2007, p. 13. 

EN 

35 

   EN 

 
                                                 
Table 15: Aid awarded under the block exemption regulations, in million €, 2006 

Member States

SME

Training

Employment

Total

Total BER as 
percentage 
of total 
Horizontal 
aid

SMEs active 
in the 
agriculture 
sector

Total BER as 
percentage 
of total 
Agriculture 
aid

SMEs active 
in the 
fisheries 
sector

Total BER as 
percentage 
of total 
Fisheries aid

EU-25
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Ireland
Greece
Spain
France
Italy
Cyprus
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Hungary
Malta
Netherlands
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Slovenia
Slovakia
Finland
Sweden
United Kingdom

1865
76
76
1
343
2
51
25
45
97
840
5
5
2
12
13
1
10
44
86
1
-
2
2
-
126

564
21
-
-
52
1
3
-
26
-
233
-
-
3
-
-
0
0
3
54
30
1
0
-
-
136

584
12
2
-
9
0
-
15
4
2
12
-
-
3
-
43
-
1
-
454
-
-
1
-
5
21

3012
109
78
1
404
3
54
40
75
99
1085
5
5
8
12
56
1
11
47
594
30
1
4
2
5
284

7.4
12.6
13.5
0.1
3.0
24.1
13.7
13.9
2.7
1.4
29.5
7.3
21.1
14.1
26.0
12.9
19.4
0.9
6.0
56.9
15.3
0.5
2.0
0.3
0.2
10.2

258.2
1.9
0.5
-
5.4
-
-
-
100.4
21.7
29.1
4.2
20.4
-
-
1.9
-
23.4
6.2
0.5
-
5.0
10.6
0.3
-
26.7

1.6
0.6
0.3
-
0.1
-
-
-
11.4
0.9
2.5
10.7
10.5
-
-
0.4
-
5.4
0.8
0.1
-
4.7
44.3
0.0
-
2.9

28.044
-
-
-
-
0.472
-
n.a.
24.250
-
2.880
-
-
-
-
-
-
0.420
-
-
-
0.013
-
0.007
-
0.003

9.87
-
-
-
-
100
-
n.a.
41.54
-
7.16
-
-
-
-
-
-
2.21
-
-
-
14.37
-
0.50
-
0.11  

Source: DG Competition, DG Agriculture, DG Fish 

Concerning  expenditure  for  SMEs  in  agriculture,  more  than  € 250  million  was  awarded  in 
2006  under  the  block  exemption  regulation.  Spain  made  up  for  around  40%  of  total 
expenditure followed by Italy (11%) and United Kingdom (10%). 

As regards expenditure in the fisheries sector, in 2006, an estimated € 28 million was awarded 
under the block exemption regulation for fisheries, as shown in Table 15.53 

3.3. 

Share of block exempted aid in aid directed at horizontal objectives 

It is also worth looking at the share of block exempted aid in total aid directed at horizontal 
objectives. EU-wide, aid under the BER for aid to SMEs in the manufacturing and services 
sector, to training and to employment represented around 7% of all aid directed at horizontal 
objectives  though  for  several  Member  States  the  share  was  considerably  higher:  Poland 
(57%), Italy (30%), Luxembourg (26%), Estonia (24%), Latvia (21%) and Malta (19%) (see 
Table 15). 

The extent to which block exempted aid has over time replaced notified aid can be established 
by  comparing  total  expenditure  granted  under  a  given  horizontal  objective  with  the 

53 

Information from Member States annual reports is only available for the year 2006. 

EN 

36 

   EN 

 
                                                 
expenditure under block exemption for the same objective. Results show that Member States 
have  made  increasingly  use  of  the  block  exemption  possibilities,  even  though  with 
considerable variations by objective and between Member States. 

Graph 3: Trend in the share of exempted aid in total aid directed at the same horizontal 
objective, EU 25 

%

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

BER SME (w ithout R&D) 

BER Training 

BER Employment 

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

year

Note: Data for the EU 10 are included as of 1 May 2004. Source: DG Competition. 

For training aid, in 2006 around 80% (€ 0.6 bn) of overall expenditure (€ 0.7 bn) was reported 
by  Member  States  under  block  exempted  measures.  While  Estonia,  Lithuania,  Netherlands, 
Austria and Poland granted training aid in  2006 exclusively and Germany, Italy and United 
Kingdom to a large extent through block exemptions, other Member States made little or no 
use of the block exemption possibility. 

For aid to SMEs active in the manufacturing and services sector data of 2006 show that € 1.9 
bn or more than one third (35%) of all aid directed to the primary objective SME were spent 
under  block  exempted  measures,  compared  to  another  € 3.4  billion  SME  aid  granted  on  the 
basis  of  notified  aid  measures.  Based  on  expenditure  data  for  2006,  block  exempted  aid 
accounted  in  Estonia,  Greece,  Latvia,  the  Netherlands,  Poland,  Czech  Republic,  Germany, 
Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Malta and the United Kingdom for around 60% and more of their 
aid to SMEs. 

Less than one fifth of overall expenditure for employment aid was granted in 2006 under the 
employment  BER  (€ 0.6  bn)  though  for  some  Member  State  it  was  the  main  tool  to  grant 
employment  aid.  Poland,  the  United  Kingdom,  Greece,  Sweden,  Lithuania,  and  Estonia 
introduced employment aid exclusively by block exempted measures; Slovakia and Hungary 
at  a  high  proportion.  In  total,  another  € 2.6  billion  employment  aid  was  notified  outside  the 
exemptions in 2006. This low take up rate has been explained in the Evaluation Report on the 
functioning  of  the  block  exemptions  with  the  fact  that  some  Member  States  perceived  its 
provisions  as  too  complex  and  more  restrictive  compared  with  the  previous  guidelines  for 

EN 

37 

   EN 

 
 
employment aid.54 An additional reason may be that many employment aid measures tend to 
be  co-financed  under  Community  funds  and  are  set  up  for  an  entire  programming  period 
while  the  employment  BER  entered  into  force  only  in  2003,  half  way  through  the  previous 
programming period 2000 – 2006. 

For the agricultural sector, even if Member States are increasingly using the block exemption 
regulation (for example, Slovakia granted nearly 45% of its aid under block exemption), only 
2% of total aid was awarded by exemptions in 2006. 

Aid in the fisheries sector was granted in 2006 for around 10% by exemptions after the BER 
being in force for more than two years. All State aid granted by Estonia fell under the scope of 
the BER. Other Member  States  granted a high percentage of their total State aids under the 
exemption, i.e. Spain (42%) and Slovenia (14%) (Table 15). 

The  significant  increase  in  2007  of  newly  introduced  block  exempted  measures,  combined 
with  sizeable  budgets  of  many  of  the  news  measures  seems  to  indicate  a  steep  increase  in 
expenditure under block exemption regulations. 

4. 

STATE AID INSTRUMENTS 

Most favoured aid instrument in the EU-25 is the grant 

All State aid represents a cost or a loss of revenue to the public authorities and a benefit to 
recipients.  However,  in  some  cases  the  actual  aid  element  may  differ  from  the  nominal 
amount as in the case of a subsidised loan or guarantee. 

54 

Evaluation  report  on  the  application  of  the  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  994/98  of  7  May  1998 
regarding  the  application  of  Articles  87  (ex-Article  92)  and  88  (ex-Article  93)  of  the  EC  Treaty  to 
certain  categories  of  horizontal  State  aid,  pursuant  to  Article  5  of  this  Regulation  (COM/2006/0831 
final, 21.12.2006, p.8). 

EN 

38 

   EN 

 
                                                 
Graph 4: Share of each aid instrument in total aid for manufacturing and services, 
EU-25, 2004–2006 

Tax exem ptions
42.57%

Grants
50.29%

Equity participation
0.90%

Soft loans
3.12%

Tax deferrals
1.52%

Guarantees
1.60%

Note: This section on aid instruments excludes the coal sector. Source: DG Competition 

During  the  period  2004-2006,  grants  accounted  for  more  than  50%  of  total  aid  in  the 
manufacturing and service sectors. In addition to aid awarded through the budget, other aid is 
paid through alleviation from the tax or social security system. Tax exemptions made up for 
almost 43% of the total (Graph 4 and Table 16). Belgium, Denmark, Estonia and Luxembourg 
provided at least 85% of their aid in the form of grants, other Member States tended to make 
greater  use  of  tax  exemptions:  accounting  for  80%  or  more  of  total  aid  in  Portugal  and 
Sweden.  A  similar  instrument  is  a  tax  deferral  which  was  used  by  seven  Member  States 
during the period under review. Tax deferrals accounted for 13% of all aid in Italy compared 
with an EU average of 2%. 

EN 

39 

   EN 

 
 
Table 16: State aid to the manufacturing and services sectors by type of instrument, 
2004-2006 

          TYPE OF AID INSTRUMENT

% of  total

EU-25
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Greece
Spain
France
Ireland
Italy
Cyprus
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Hungary
Malta
Netherlands
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Slovenia
Slovakia
Finland
Sweden
United Kingdom

Grants

50
94
65
90
39
85
76
52
52
47
66
53
53
53
98
39
30
81
70
52
8
84
37
62
18
60

Tax 
exemptions
43
1
27
7
57
1
23
37
38
51
17
43
42
41
-
58
57
11
0
41
87
10
63
32
81
39

Equity 
participation
1
0
-
4
1
-
-
1
1
1
0
-
-
4
-
1
-
0
-
0
0
1
-
1
0
1

Soft loans

Tax deferrals Guarantees

3
5
3
0
1
0
-
11
7
0
4
-
4
-
2
1
2
0
7
3
4
3
-
6
1
0

2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
0
1
13
-
0
3
-
-
9
3
-
0
1
-
-
-
-
0

2
1
5
0
1
14
1
0
2
0
0
4
0
-
-
1
2
4
23
4
0
3
-
0
0
0

Note: due to rounding not all percentage figures sum up precisely to 100. Source: DG Competition 

There are other forms of aid instrument which vary from one Member State to another. One 
such category covers transfers in which the aid element is the interest saved by the recipient 
during  the  period  for  which  the  capital  transferred  is  at  his  disposal.  The  financial  transfer 
takes the form of a soft loan or tax deferral (mentioned already above). The aid elements in 
this  category  are  much  lower  than  the  capital  values  of  the  transfers.  EU-wide,  soft  loans 
represented around 3% of all aid to manufacturing and services. In Spain, France and Austria, 
the proportion was 7% or more.  

Aid may also be in the form of state equity participation which represented around 1% of all 
aid  to  the  manufacturing  and  service  sectors.  Finally,  aid  may  be  provided  in  the  form  of 
guarantees. The aid elements are generally much lower than the nominal amounts guaranteed, 
since  they  correspond  to  the  benefit  which  the  recipient  receives  free  of  charge  or  at  lower 
than  market  rate  if  a  premium  is  paid  to  cover  the  risk.  EU-wide,  guarantees  made  up  for 
almost 2% of total aid. During the period under review, the guarantees were used by Austria 
(23% of total aid), mainly to the banking sector (aid to BAWAG), and in Estonia (14 % of total 
aid). 

EN 

40 

   EN 

 
 
PART TWO: RECOVERY OF UNLAWFUL AID

55 

Article 14 (1) of the Procedural Regulation states that "where negative decisions are taken in 
cases  of  unlawful  aid,  the  Commission  shall  decide  that  the  Member  State  concerned  shall 
take all necessary measures to recover the aid from the beneficiary". 

As of 30 June 2007, there were 50 pending recovery decisions (see in Annex I the complete 
list), compared to 93 on 31 December 2004 and 60 on 31 December 2006. In the first half of 
2007, 15 pending recovery cases were closed, whilst five recovery decisions were taken (see 
Table 17). The geographical distribution of pending recovery cases is the following: Spain has 
the  highest  number  of  pending  recovery  cases  (15),  which  represents  30%  of  the  EU  total. 
Nine of the Spanish pending cases refer to Basque fiscal schemes. 

Taken together, Germany, Italy and France account for a further 50% of all pending recovery 
cases. Germany has reduced its share in the total number of pending cases from 47% in 2004 
to 18% in June 2007 (mainly as a result of the closure of a large number of old insolvency 
cases). 

It should also be noted that there are no pending cases in 15 of the 27 Member States. 

Table 17: Pending recovery cases by Member State, first semester 2007 

Situation 
01/01/2007 

New cases 
01.01.-
30.06.2007 

Cases closed 
01.01.- 
30.06.2007 

Situation 
30/06/2007 

Spain 
Germany 
Italy 
France 
Netherlands 
Portugal 
Greece 
Belgium 
Ireland 

Poland 
Finland 
Slovakia 
TOTAL 

17
16
11
6
2
2
1
1
1

1
1
1
60

1
1
2
1
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
5

3
8
3
1
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
15

15 
9 
10 
6 
2 
2 
1 
1 
1 

1 
1 
1 
50 

Source: DG Competition 

Table  18  provides  data  on  the  amounts  of  aid  to  be  recovered  under  the  115  recovery 
decisions  adopted  since  200056.  For  94  of  these  decisions,  relatively  accurate  information 
exists on the amount of aid involved. This information shows that the total amount of aid to 

55 

56 

With  the  exception  of  Table  20,  this  section  covers  only  aid  to  industry  and  services  excluding  coal 
mining, i.e. aid to agriculture, fisheries and transport excluded. 
On  30  June  2007,  there  were  still  further  six  recovery  decisions  pending  that  were  adopted  before  1 
January 2000. 

EN 

41 

   EN 

 
 
                                                 
be recovered on the basis of decisions adopted between 1 January 2000 and 30 June 2007 is at 
least € 9.07 billion.57 

Table 18: Trend in the number of recovery decisions and amounts to be recovered(*) 
2000- 2007 (state of play – 30.06.2007) 

Date of Decision 

2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006  1S07  total 

Nr.of decisions adopted 

16 

20 

23 

10 

23 

12 

6 

5 

115 

Total  aid  known  to  be  recovered  (in 
mio €)  

247.0  1026.5 1095.4 1015.6 5112.9 338.7  132.6  103.2  9071.9

amounts recovered (In mio €) 

218.1  1068.8 1470.1 1230.3 5301.4 24.9 

45.3  0.0 

9358.9

Of which: 

(a) Principal reimbursed/or in 

blocked account 

17.1 

912.0  1037.6 894.6  3155.3 22.1 

0.3 

0.0 

6039.0

(b) Aid lost in bankruptcy 

201.0  76.3 

29.0 

0.7 

870.9  0.0 

45.0  0.0 

1222.9

(c) Interest 

80.5 

403.5  335.0  1275.2 2.8 

0.0 

0.0 

2097.0

Aid registered in bankruptcy 

15.6 

16.9 

6.2 

133.8  0.0 

7.5 

0.0 

0.0 

180.0 

Amount outstanding (***) 

28.9 

38.2 

28.8 

120.3  1086.7 316.6  87.3  103.2  1810.0

% still pending to be recovered (**)  11.7% 3.7%  2.6%  11.8% 21.3% 93.5% 66%  100% 20.0%

Notes: 

(*) Only for decisions for which the aid amount is known.  

(**) Amount excluding interest.  

(***) Total aid known to be recovered less principal reimbursed and aid lost in bankruptcy 

Source: DG Competition 

For 21 of the recovery decisions adopted since 2000, the Member States concerned have not 
yet  submitted  reliable  information  on  the  aid  amount  involved.  Most  of  these  decisions 
(namely 17) concern aid schemes. Especially in relation to fiscal and social security schemes, 
Member States appear to have difficulties in collecting accurate information (the main reasons 
given were: large number of beneficiaries; aid granted is partially compatible, which requires 
a full examination of each individual file; older records are no longer kept). The Commission 
continues  its  efforts  to  obtain  information  from  the  Member  States  on  the  aid  amounts 
involved. 

57 

The autumn 2005 State aid Scoreboard (COM(2005)624 final of 9 December 2005) reported a total of € 
9.4 billion. This discrepancy is due to the fact that some Member States submitted a revised estimate of 
the amounts to be recovered under some schemes. 

EN 

42 

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Of  the  € 9.07  billion  of  aid  to  be  recovered  under  decisions  adopted  since  2000,  some  € 6 
billion of illegal and incompatible aid had been effectively recovered by 30 June 2007 (this 
compares  to  € 2.3  billion  of  aid  reported  as  recovered  in  December  2004)58.  In  addition,  a 
further € 2.1 billion of recovery interests was recovered. In addition to the amounts effectively 
recovered, a further € 1.2 billion of unlawful and incompatible aid was “lost” in bankruptcy 
proceedings59 and € 180 million of illegal and incompatible aid has been registered in ongoing 
bankruptcy  proceedings.  This  leaves  € 1.8  billion  of  illegal  and  incompatible  aid  still  to  be 
recovered (i.e. 20% of the total). 

During the first half of 2007 no significant amounts have been recovered and the majority of 
the  cases  closed  refer  to  insolvent  companies,  in  which  the  illegal  and  incompatible  aid  is 
usually not (or only very partially) recovered. 

Recovery  of  illegal  incompatible  state  aid  is  still  a  lengthy  process:  Six  of  the  recovery 
decisions  the  execution  of  which  was  still  pending  on  30  June  2007  were  adopted  before  1 
January 2000. Of the 115 decisions adopted between 2000 and June 2007, only 71 have been 
closed by the June 2007 (see Table 19). 

Table 19: Trend in the closure of recovery cases (state of play – 30.06.2007) 

Date of the Decision 

2000 

2001 

2002 

2003 

2004 

2005 

2006 

2007 

Total 

Nr  of  recovery  decisions 
adopted 

16 

Nr  of  recovery  cases  that 
are closed on 30/06/07 

14 

20 

23 

10 

23 

12 

11 

16 

5 

17 

5 

6 

3 

5 

0 

115 

71 

In its State Aid Action Plan, the Commission announced that it would monitor more closely 
the execution of recovery decisions by Member States. Where Member States do not take all 
measures available to implement such decisions, the Commission has taken a strict line and 
systematically  initiated  infringement  proceedings  against  the  Member  State  concerned  in 
accordance with Articles 88(2), 226 and 228(2) of the EC Treaty. 

58 

59 

Total amount recovered (including interest and aid lost in bankruptcy reported in December 2004 was € 
3.1 billion, and in December 2005 € 8.2 billion). 
In  insolvency  cases,  the  recovery  claim  is  normally  only  partially  satisfied.  The  remainder  is  “lost”. 
From a competition perspective, however, it is considered that the distortion of competition is removed 
with the liquidation of the beneficiary (provided that its assets are transferred on market terms).  

EN 

43 

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Table 20: The pending recovery cases for which the Commission has decided to bring 
the case before the Court of Justice and for which the illegal and incompatible aid is not 
yet recovered 

State 
developments 

of 

play 

and 

recent 

02/07/02: ECJ judgment condemning 
SPAIN for failing to implement CEC 
decision 

01/04/04: ECJ judgment condemning 
ITALY for failing to implement CEC 
decision  

14/12/06: ECJ judgment condemning 
SPAIN for failing to implement CEC 
decision 

11/07/07:  Commission  sent  letter  of 
formal notice to Spain 

Case number/title 

MS 

Court case 

CR 44/1997 - Magefesa 

SPAIN 

C-499/99 

CR 49/1998 - Employment measures 

ITALY 

C-99/02 

CR 48/1999 

CR 49/1999 

CR 50/1999 

CR 52/1999 

CR 53/1999 

CR 54/1999 

SPAIN 

C-485/03, 

C-486/03, 

C 487/03, 

C-488/03, 

C-489/03 

C-490/03 

Basque fiscal aid schemes 

CR 03/1999 - Spanish shipyards I 

SPAIN 

C-404/03 

CR  38/1998  -  Kimberly  Clark/Scott 
Paper 

FRANCE 

C-232/05 

CR 27/1999 - Municipalizzate 

ITALY 

C-207/05 

CR  62/2000  -  Thuringen  Porzellan 
(Kahla) 

GERMANY 

C-39/06  

26/06/03: ECJ judgment condemning 
SPAIN for failing to implement CEC 
decision 

18/10/04:  Commission  sent  letter  of 
formal notice to Spain  

05/10/06: ECJ judgment condemning 
FRANCE for failing to execute CEC 
decision 

01/06/06: ECJ judgment condemning 
ITALY  for  failing  to  execute  CEC 
decision 

19/07/07: Commission sent a letter of 
formal notice to Italy 

16/02/05:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against 
GERMANY.  
24/01/06:  Application  lodged  at  the 
ECJ pursuant to Article 88(2) 

EN 

44 

   EN 

 
 
  
 
  
  
Case number/title 

MS 

Court case 

State 
developments 

of 

play 

and 

recent 

CR  62/2003  -  Urgent  employment 
measures 

ITALY 

C-280/05  

06/04/05:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against 
ITALY 

Press release: IP/05/189 

SPAIN 

 C-177/06 

CR 58/2000 

CR 59/2000 

CR 60/2000 

Basque fiscal aid schemes 

CR 57/2003 - Tremonti Bis 

ITALY 

CR 36/2001 - Beaulieu Ter Lembeek 

BELGIUM 

C-187/06 

CR  8/2004  -  Fiscal  incentives  for 
newly listed companies 

ITALY 

CR  13b/2003  -  France  Telecom  – 
Business Tax Scheme 

FRANCE 

C-441/06 

11/07/05:  Application  lodged  at  the 
ECJ pursuant to Article 88(2) 

Press release: IP/05/395 

21/12/05:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against 
SPAIN 
04/04/06:  Application  lodged  at  the 
ECJ pursuant to Article 88(2) 

20/09/07: ECJ judgment condemning 
SPAIN  for  failing  to  execute  CEC 
decision 

Press release: IP/05/1655 

25/01/06:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against 
ITALY 

Press release: IP/06/77 

25/01/06:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against  BE
12/04/06:  Application  lodged  at  the 
ECJ pursuant to Article 88(2) 

Press release: IP/06/77 

19/07/06:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against 
ITALY  

Press release: IP/06/1040 

19/07/06:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against 
FRANCE 
25/10/06:  Application  lodged  at  the 
ECJ pursuant to Article 88(2) 

18/10/07: ECJ judgment condemning 
FRANCE for failing to execute CEC 
decision 

Press release: IP/06/1014 

EN 

45 

   EN 

 
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
Case number/title 

MS 

Court case 

CR 57/2002 - Exonérations fiscales en 
faveur  de  la  reprise  d'entreprises  en 
difficulté - Article 44 septies CGI 

FRANCE 

 C-214/07 

C  11/2004  -  Olympic  Airways 
Olympic airlines 

/ 

GREECE 

C-419/06 

C 19/2002 - Olympic Airways 

GREECE 

C-415/03 

C 369/07  

81/1997 

CR 
reductions – Venezia e Chioggia 

-  Social 

security 

ITALY 

CR  3/2002  –  Aid  to  Refractarios 
especiales 

SPAIN 

State 
developments 

of 

play 

and 

recent 

24/10/06:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against 
FRANCE 

Press release: IP/06/1471 

26/04/06  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against 
GREECE 

Press release: IP/06/531 

26/04/06:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art  228  action  against 
GREECE  failure  to  comply  with 
judgement  of  Court  of  Justice  (case 
C-415/03) 

Press release: IP/06/531 

10/05/07:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against 
ITALY 

Press release: IP/07/648 

18/07/2007:  Commission  decision  to 
initiate  Art.  88(2)  action  against 
SPAIN 

Press release: IP/07/1138 

PART THREE: LEGISLATIVE AND POLICY DEVELOPMENTS 

State Aid Action Plan 

The  Commission  continues  to  implement  various  aspects  of  the  State  aid  Action  Plan 
(SAAP),60 which set out in June 2005 the guiding principles for a comprehensive reform of 
State  aid  rules  and  procedures  over  the  next  five  years.  Since  the  last  Scoreboard  was 
published  in  the  spring,  the  Commission  has  adopted  the  following  final  or  draft  legislative 
texts: 

60 

COM(2005) 107 final, 7.6.2005 

EN 

46 

   EN 

 
 
 
                                                 
1. 

NEW LEGISLATION 

Commission Regulation on de minimis aid in the fisheries sector 

The European Commission adopted in July 2007 a Regulation increasing the ceiling of the so-
called  de  minimis  aid  to  the  fisheries  sector.61  De  minimis  aid  is  aid  deemed  not  to  distort 
competition. Under  the  new  Regulation, the ceiling  is  set at € 30 000 per three-year  period, 
per beneficiary, on condition that the total amount of such aid represents less than 2.5% of the 
annual national fisheries output. None of this aid may be used to purchase or construct new 
vessels  or  to  enhance  existing  fleet  capacity.  Member  States  have  to  record  all  relevant 
information to show that these conditions have been respected. 

Notice  on  the  implementation  of  decisions  to  recover  unlawful  and  incompatible  State 
aid 

To further improve the enforcement of recovery decisions, the European Commission adopted 
on 25 October 2007 a "Notice on the implementation of decisions ordering Member States to 
recover  unlawful  and  incompatible  state  aid"62.  The  notice  provides  guidance  to  Member 
States as to how to achieve a more immediate and effective execution of recovery decisions. 
Effective recovery is indeed essential to ensure that distortions of competition resulting from 
illegal  and  incompatible  aid  are  put  to  an  end.  The  Notice  emphasises  that  improving  the 
enforcement of state aid decisions is a shared responsibility between the Commission and the 
Member States. It recalls the principles applying to the recovery of state aid as confirmed by 
the Community Courts and defines the respective role of the Commission and of the Member 
States in the recovery procedures. 

Communication on services of general interest 

On  20  November  2007,  the  European  Commission  adopted,  as  a  part  of  the  Single  Market 
package63,  the  Communication  on  "Services  of  general  interest,  including  social  services  of 
general interest: a new European commitment"64. The document develops the set of principles 
established in the specific Protocol on services of general interest (SGI) attached to the draft 
Lisbon Treaty. The Communication also proposes a strategy further promoting the quality of 
social  services,  such  as  social  housing,  childcare,  support  for  families  and  persons  in  need. 
This  communication  follows  up  on  a  previous  White  Paper  and  large  public  consultation. 
More specifically, the Communication includes initiatives, including an interactive assistance 
tool, aimed at clarifying the implementation of Community rules, in particular State aid and 
public procurement ones, in the area of services of general economic interest (SGEI) and at 
helping  public  authorities,  service  providers  and  users  to  better  understand  and  apply  these 
rules. 

In  these  two  fields,  the  publication  of  the  Communication  is  accompanied  by  two 
Commission staff working documents. Especially as far as State aid issues are concerned, the 
"Frequently asked questions: Application of State aid rules to public service compensation for 

61 
62 
63 
64 

OJ L 193 of 25.07.2007, p. 6-12 
OJ C 272 of 15.11.2007 p. 4-17,  
COM(2007)724 
COM(2007)725 

EN 

47 

   EN 

 
                                                 
services of general economic interest"65, provides answers to the most often raised questions 
on the application of State aid rules, such as the SGEI package taken by the Commission in 
2005 to services of general economic interest. 

PSO Regulation for land transport 

On 23 October 2007, the Council and the Parliament adopted the text for a new Regulation on 
Public  Service  Obligations  in  the  field  of  inland  transport66.  This  regulation  will  enter  into 
force  two  years  after  its  publication  in  the  Official  Journal  of  the  European  Union.  It  will 
replace the existing Regulations 1191/69/EC and 1107/70/EC. As of its entry into force, State 
aid granted in the form of compensation for public service obligations in inland transport will 
be  mainly  governed  by  this  new  Regulation.  In  addition,  Article  73  of  the  Treaty  can  be 
applied  directly  for  cases  not  covered  by  the  new  Regulation,  and  Regulation  1192/69/EC 
remains in force for certain compensation payments to railway companies. 

2. 

DRAFT LEGISLATION 

Revised draft General Block Exemption Regulation 

In September 2007, the European Commission invited interested parties to submit comments 
on  the  revised  draft  general  block  exemption  of  the  Commission  in  the  State  aid  area,67 
accompanied by a revised explanatory memorandum drawn up by the Commission's services. 
The new so-called 'general block exemption' Regulation aims at simplifying and consolidating 
into  one  text  the  four  existing  block  exemptions  for  aid  to  SMEs  including  research  and 
development  aid  in  favour  of  SMEs,  aid  for  employment,  training  aid  and  regional  aid.  In 
addition, the new Regulation would also allow the block exemption of three new types of aid: 
environmental aid, aid in the form of risk capital and exempting Research and Development 
aid  (R&D)  also  in  favour  of  large  enterprises.  Subsidies  which  fulfilled  the  conditions  laid 
down in the new Regulation would be considered as compatible with state aid rules without 
requiring  prior  notification  to  the  Commission.  Following  consultations,  the  Commission 
intends to adopt the final version of this regulation before the summer of 2008. 

Second draft Community guidelines on State aid for environmental protection 

The current Community guidelines on State aid for environmental  protection68 expire at  the 
end  of  2007.  After  the  publication  of  a  first  draft  in  May  2007,  the  Commission  services 
published  a  revised  draft  on  the  DG  Competition's  website69  in  September  2007.  The  final 
adoption of the revised Environmental guidelines is envisaged for the beginning of next year. 
The Commission intends to prolong the current guidelines till the adoption of the new ones. 

65 
66 

67 

68 
69 

SEC(2007)1516 
Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on 
public  passenger  transport  services  by  rail  and  by  road  and  repealing  Council  Regulations  (EEC) 
Nos 1191/69 and 1107/70, OJ L 315 of 3.12.2007 p. 1-13 
OJ  C  210,  8.9.2007,  p.  14–40,  see  also  the  Commission  services  document  with  track  changes, 
facilitating the comparison to the first draft of April 2007. 
OJ C 37, 3.2.2001, p. 3-15 
DG Competition's Public consultations web page 

EN 

48 

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Draft Commission Regulation on de minimis aid in the agricultural production sector 

In July 2007, with the publication in the Official Journal, all interested parties were invited to 
submit their comments on a draft regulation raising the ceiling for small amounts of aid (“de 
minimis”  aid)  in  the  agriculture  sector  to  € 6 000  per  beneficiary  over  any  period  of  three 
years and the maximum total per Member State to 0.6% of the value of agricultural output.70 
The  draft  regulation  also  sets  out  a  clearer  definition  of  the  scope  of  such  aid.  It  gives  the 
Member States greater room for manoeuvre in granting aid without distorting competition.  

Following the  consultation process,  the Commission intends to adopt a definitive regulation 
towards the end of 2007. 

Draft  revised  Commission  Notice  on  the  application  of  Articles  87  and  88  of  the  EC 
Treaty to State aid in the form of guarantees  

The  draft  notice,  published  for  public  consultation  in  July  2007,  updates  the  Commission’s 
approach to State aid granted in the form of guarantees and aims to give Member States more 
detailed  guidance  about  the  principles  on  which  the  Commission  intends  to  base  its 
interpretation  of  Articles  87  and  88  and  their  application  to  State  guarantees71.  These 
principles  are  currently  laid  down  in  the  present  Commission  Notice  on  the  application  of 
Articles  87  and  88  of  the  EC  Treaty  to  State  aid  in  the  form  of  guarantees.72  Experience 
gained in the application of the Notice since 2000 suggests that the Commission’s policy in 
this area should be reviewed. In this connection, the Commission wishes to recall for instance 
its  recent  practice  in  various  specific  decisions  with  respect  to  the  need  to  undertake  an 
individual  assessment  of  the  risk  of  the  losses  related  to  each  guarantee  for  schemes.  The 
Commission intends to further make its policy in this area as transparent as possible so that its 
decisions  are  predictable  and  that  equal  treatment  is  ensured.  In  particular,  the  Commission 
wishes to provide SMEs and Member States with safe harbours predetermining, for a given 
company and on the basis of its financial rating, the minimum margin that should be charged 
for a State guarantee in order to be deemed as not constituting aid. Likewise, any shortfall in 
the premium charged in comparison with that level could be deemed as the aid element.  

Proposal for amendment to Implementing Regulation  

After  approving  the  proposal  for  modification  of  Regulation  794/200473  in  June  2007,  the 
Commission presented its text on DG Competition’s website and invited interested parties to 
submit  their  comments.74  The  final  adoption  of  a  Commission  Regulation  amending 
Regulation  (EC)  794/2004  is  envisaged  by  the  end  of  2007.  The  proposed  amendments 
concern  mainly  the  compulsory  use  of  the  electronic  notification  system  (SANI),  the 
introduction of two new notification forms following  the  adoption  of  the  new  guidelines on 
risk  capital  investments  and  the  new  R&D&I  framework  as  well  as  a  new  method  of 
calculation of recovery interest rate. 

70 
71 
72 
73 
74 

OJ C 151, 5.7.2007, p. 16-20 
DG Competition's State aid reform web page 
OJ C 71, 11.3.2000, p. 14–18 
OJ L 140, 30.4.2004, p. 1-134 
DG Competition's Public consultations web page  

EN 

49 

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Draft communication on a new method for calculation of reference and discount rates 

The Commission services prepared a draft Communication on the revision of the method for 
setting  the  reference  and  discount  rates75.  The  reference  rate  is  used  to  measure  the  grant 
equivalent of aid and to calculate the aid element resulting from interest subsidy schemes. The 
methodology to set the reference rate, which is currently laid down in a Commission letter to 
the  Member  States  and  several  Commission  notices,  refers  to  the  five-year  interbank  swap 
rate, in the relevant currency, plus a premium of 75 basis points. In cases where the five-year 
interbank swap rate is not available, the base rate is set at the level of yield on five-year State 
bonds, plus a premium of 25 basis points, plus 75 basis points. This methodology has certain 
shortcomings: data are not available for several new Member States; the methodology uses a 
one-size-fits-all  approach  to  credit  risk  and  the  debtors’  creditworthiness  and  collaterals  are 
insufficiently  taken  into  account.  The  new  methodology  is  to  be  based  on  the  following 
parameters: 

–  Calculation basis: 1 year IBOR. This rate is more widely available than the 5 year swap-

rate; 

–  Margins have to be added to take account of the creditworthiness and the collateralisation. 

These margins vary from 60 basis points to 1000 basis points. 

The adoption by the Commission of the new methodology is envisaged by the end of 2007. 

Draft Commission Regulation on the application of Article 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty 
to State aid to small and medium-sized enterprises active in the production, processing 
and marketing of fisheries products 

In October 2007, The Commission, by publication in the Official Journal,76 invited interested 
parties  to  submit  comments  on  the  draft  regulation  which  exempts  Member  States  from  the 
obligation  to  notify  State  aid  given  to  small  and  medium  sized  undertakings  involved  in 
production,  processing  and  marketing  of  fisheries  products  -  provided  that  certain 
requirements are met. 

Revision  of  the  Community  Guidelines  on  State  Aid  for  Rescuing  and  Restructuring 
Firms in Difficulty 

The  current  Rescue  and  Restructuring  Aid  Guidelines  expire  in  October  2009.77  To  prepare 
the  revision  of  these  Guidelines,  the  Commission  invited  in  September  2007  all  Member 
States  and  all  other  interested  parties  to  convey  their  experience  on  the  basis  of  the 
questionnaire published on DG Competition’s website.78 At the same time, the Commission 
published  an  invitation  to  tender  concerns  a  Study  on  counterfactual  scenarios  to 
restructuring State aid: observed developments when no aid is granted to firms in difficulty.79 

75 
76 
77 
78 
79 

DG Competition's State aid legislation web page 
OJ C 248, 23.10.2007, p. 13-22 
OJ C 244, 1.10.2004, p. 2-17 
DG Competition's Public consultations web page 
DG Competition's Calls for tenders web page 

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The autumn 2006 scoreboard contains an in-depth analysis of rescue and restructuring aid in 
the Member States over the period 2000-2005.80 

3. 

REGIONAL AID MAPS 

Regional aid maps 2007-2013 approved for all 27 Member States 

By the end of November 2007 the Commission had approved under EC Treaty State aid rules 
the  regional  aid  maps  covering  the  period  2007-2013  for  all  27  Member  States.81  These 
decisions form part of a wider exercise to review regional aid systems in all Member States. A 
regional  aid  map  defines  the  regions  of  a  Member  State  eligible  for  national  regional 
investment  aid  for  large  enterprises  under  EC  Treaty  state  aid  rules  and  establishes  the 
maximum permitted levels of such aid in the eligible regions. The adoption of a regional aid 
map  is  a  pre-condition  to  ensure  the  continuity  of  the  regional  policy  and  Structural  Funds 
programmes  as  from  January  2007,  as  the  validity  of  all  previous  maps  expired  on  31st 
December 2006. 

ONLINE STATE AID SCOREBOARD, REGISTER AND OTHER REPORTS ON STATE AID 

The online Scoreboard contains electronic versions of this and previous Scoreboards as well 
as a set of key indicators and a wide array of statistical tables:  

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/studies_reports/studies_reports.cfm 

Any  queries  or  requests  for  data  should  be  sent 
Stateaid-Scoreboard@ec.europa.eu 

to 

the  scoreboard  mailbox  at 

State aid Register – a second transparency tool 

The  Commission’s  State  aid  Register  has  been  online  since  2001.  The  Register  provides 
detailed information on all State aid cases which have been the object of a final Commission 
decision  since  1st  January  2000  as  well  as  block  exemption  cases  published  in  the  Official 
Journal.  It  is  updated  daily  and  thus  ensures  that  the  public  has  timely  access  to  the  most 
recent  State  aid  decisions.  It  is  available  on  the  homepage  of  the  Competition  Directorate 
General’s Internet site:  

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/register/ 

Annual Competition Report  

The Commission publishes an Annual Report on Competition Policy which summarises the 
most important legal developments and case-law of the year as well as statistical data on the 
Commission’s work during the relevant year. 

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/annual_reports/ 

80 
81 

COM(2006)761, 11.12.2006 
DG Competition's Regional aid web page 

EN 

51 

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Competition Policy Newsletter 

A  Competition  Policy  Newsletter  is  also  published  three  times  a  year  by  the  Competition 
Directorate-General  of  the  European  Commission.  It  aims  at  describing  and  discussing  in 
more detail legislative developments as well as interesting case-law and covers generally the 
preceding four months. 

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/publications/cpn/ 

State Aid Weekly e-News 

State Aid Weekly e-News is issued every week to present the latest developments in the area 
of  State  aid.  It  features  information  on  new  legislative  texts  and  proposals,  decisions  of  the 
European  Commission  and  the  Courts  of  the  European  Union  and  other  state  aid-related 
documents and events.  

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/newsletter/index.html 

METHODOLOGICAL NOTES 

The Scoreboard covers State aid as defined under Article 87(1) EC Treaty that is granted by 
the  Member  States  and  has  been  examined  by  the  Commission.  Accordingly,  general 
measures  and  public  subsidies  that  have  no  effect  on  trade  and  do  not  distort  or  threaten  to 
distort  competition  are  not  dealt  with  in  the  Scoreboard  as  they  are  not  subject  to  the 
Commission’s  investigative  powers.  For  example,  a  general  tax  break  for  expenditure  on 
research  and  development  is  not  considered  as  State  aid  although  it  may  well  appear  in 
Member States national budgets as public support for research and development. See also box 
on “What is a State aid” on page 11 of the spring 2005 update of the Scoreboard. 

All State aid data refer to the implementation of Commission decisions and not cases that are 
still  under  examination.  There  may  be  discrepancies  with  figures  published  in  previous 
Scoreboards  for  a  number  of  reasons:  first,  provisional  or  estimated  figures  may  now  be 
replaced by final data; second, when the Commission takes a decision on a non-notified aid 
measure, the aid in question is attributed to the year(s) in which it was awarded. In cases that 
result in expenditure over a number of years, the total amount is attributed to each of the years 
in  which  expenditure  took  place.  All  data  are  provided  in  million  (or  billion  where 
appropriate) Euro at constant 1995 prices but have been re-referenced on the year 2006.  

This autumn 2007 edition of the Scoreboard focuses largely on the year 2006. As in previous 
years, State aid data collected for the Scoreboard are grouped according to primary objectives 
which may be either horizontal or sector-specific. Information on the objective of the aid, or, 
the sector to which the aid is directed, refers to the time the aid was approved and not to the 
final recipients of the aid. For example, the primary objective of a scheme which, at the time 
the aid was approved, was exclusively earmarked for SMEs is classified as aid for ‘SMEs’. In 
contrast, aid granted under, say, a regional development scheme may ultimately be awarded to 
SMEs, but is not regarded as such if, at the time the aid was approved, the scheme was open 
to all enterprises.  

Community funds and instruments are excluded. 

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The following symbols have been used in the Scoreboard: 

n.a. 

not available 

- 

0 

real zero 

less than half the unit used 

Further information on methodological issues may be found on the online Scoreboard: 

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/studies_reports/conceptual_remarks.html  

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ANNEX I: PENDING RECOVERY DECISIONS (30 JUNE 2007) 

Working title 

Loan to Chupa Chups 

Rescue and restructuring aid to Ernault 

Restructuring aid to Nuova Mineraria Silius  

Biria Gruppe 

C52/05 - Digital Decoders - Italy  

Exemption from corporate tax for capital gains of certain 
operations/transactions by public undertakings 

Decision date 

Decision number 

Official Journal 

Page  Publication date 

Spain 

France 

Italy 

Germany 

Italy 

Portugal 

10-05-2007 

04-04-2007 

21-02-2007 

24-01-2007 

24-01-2007 
04-07-2006 

2007/613/EC 

2007/674/EC 

2007/499/EC 

2007/492/EC 

2007/374/EC 
2006/748/EC 

JOCE L/244/2007 

JOCE L/277/2007 

JOCE L/185/2007 

JOCE L/183/2007 

JOCE L/147/2007 
JOCE L/307/2006 

20 

25 

18 

27 

1 
219 

2007-09-19 

2007-10-20 

2007-07-17 

2007-07-13 

2007-06-08 
2006-11-07 

Ad hoc financing of Dutch public broadcasters 

Netherlands 

22-06-2006 

Measures in favour of Frucona Kosice 

Slovakia 

07-04-2006 

2007/254/EC 

JOCE L/112/2007 

Aid to Huta Częstochowa SA 

Poland 

05-07-2005 

2006/937/EC 

JOCE L/366/2006 

Exemption from excise duty for the production of alumina in Gardanne 

France 

07-02-2007 

2007/375/EC 

JOCE L/147/2007 

Exemption from excise duty for the production of alumina in Shannon 

Ireland 

07-02-2007 

2007/375/EC 

JOCE L/147/2007 

Exemption from excise duty for the production of alumina in Sardinia 

Italy 

07-02-2007 

2007/375/EC 

JOCE L/147/2007 

Aid to Componenta Corporation  

Finland 

20-10-2005 

2006/900/EC 

JOCE L/353/2006 

Fiscal incentives for newly listed companies 

Aid to Chemische Werke Piesteritz GmbH 

Fiscal incentives for outward FDI 

Tremonti bis 

Aid to Hellenic shipyards I 

Aid to Siderurgica Anon 

Italy 

Germany 

Italy 

Italy 

Greece 

Spain 

16-03-2005 

02-03-2005 

14-12-2004 

20-10-2004 

20-10-2004 

16-06-2004 

2006/261/EC 

2005/786/EC 

2005/919/EC 

2005/315/EC 

2005/246/EC 

2005/827/EC 

JOCE L/094/2006 

JOCE L/296/2005 

JOCE L/335/2005 

JOCE L/100/2005 

JOCE L/075/2005 

JOCE L/311/2005 

14 

1 

29 

29 

29 

36 

42 

19 

39 

46 

44 

22 

2007-04-30 

2006-12-21 

2007-06-08 

2007-06-08 

2007-06-08 

2006-12-13 

2006-04-01 

2005-11-12 

2005-12-21 

2005-04-20 

2005-03-22 

2005-11-26 

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Working title 

Urgent measures in support of employment 

Article 44 septies CGI 

Aid to Space Park Bremen Development GmbH & Co KG 

Aid to Minas Rio Tinto sal 

Export aid scheme Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 

Aid to Hilados y Tejidos Puigneró S.A. 

Fiscal aid scheme - Açores 

Aid to Refractarios especiales 

Aid to Kahla (Porzellan GmbH) 

Aid to Municipalizzate 

Aid to the Beaulieu Group (Ter Lembeek) 

Aid to SKL Motoren- und Systemtechnik GmbH 

Fiscal aid - Province of Vizcaya (III) 

Fiscal aid - Province of Alava (III) 

Fiscal aid - Province of Guipuzcoa (III)) 

Fiscal aid - Province of Guizpuzcoa (II) 

Fiscal aid - Province of Vizcaya (II) 

Fiscal aid - Province of Vizcaya (I) 

Fiscal aid - Province of Guipuzcoa (I) 

Fiscal aid - Province of Alava (I) 

Fiscal aid - Province of Alava (II) 

France Telecom - Taxe professionnelle 

Aid to Lintra beteiligungsholding Gmbh 

Manure processing scheme 

Aid for Kimberly Clark/Scott Group 

Social security reductions - Venezia et Chioggia 

Employment aid measures (Loi Nr 196/97) 

Aid for Magefesa 

Aid for Dieselmotorenwerk Vulkan GmbH 

Borotra aid scheme 

Aid for Hamburger Stahlwerke GmbH 
Source: DG Competition 

Decision date 

Decision number 

Official Journal 

Page  Publication date 

Italy 

France 

Germany 

Spain 

Germany 

Spain 

Portugal 

Spain 

Germany 

Italy 

Belgium 

Germany 

Spain 

Spain 

Spain 

Spain 

Spain 

Spain 

Spain 

Spain 

Spain 

France 

Germany 

Netherlands 

France 

Italy 

Italy 

Spain 

Germany 

France 

Germany 

30-03-2004 

16-12-2003 

17-09-2003 

27-05-2003 

05-03-2003 

19-02-2003 

11-12-2002 

27-11-2002 

13-05-2003 

05-06-2002 

24-04-2002 

09-04-2002 

20-12-2001 

20-12-2001 

20-12-2001 

11-07-2001 

11-07-2001 

11-07-2001 

11-07-2001 

11-07-2001 

11-07-2001 

02-08-2004 

28-03-2001 

13-12-2000 

12-07-2000 

25-11-1999 

11-05-1999 

14-10-1998 

21-04-1999 

09-04-1997 

31-10-1995 

2004/800/EC 

2004/343/EC 

2004/167/EC 

2004/300/EC 

2003/595/EC 

2003/876/EC 

2003/442/EC 

2003/283/EC 

2003/643/EC 

2003/193/EC 

2002/825/EC 

2002/898/EC 

2003/86/EC 

2003/28/EC 

2003/192/EC 

2002/894/EC 

2003/27/EC 

2002/806/EC 

2002/540/EC 

2002/820/EC 

200/892/EC 

2005/709/EC 

2001/673/EC 

2001/521/EC 

2002/14/EC 

2000/394/EC 

2000/128/EC 

1999/509/EC 

1999/600/EC 

1997/811/EC 

1996/236/EC 

JOCE L/352/2004 

JOCE L/108/2004 

JOCE L/061/2004 

JOCE L/098/2004 

JOCE L/202/2003 

JOCE L/337/2003 

JOCE L/150/2003 

JOCE L/108/2003 

JOCE L/227/2003 

JOCE L/077/2003 

JOCE L/296/2002 

JOCE L/314/2002 

JOCE L/040/2003 

JOCE L/017/2003 

JOCE L/077/2003 

JOCE L/314/2002 

JOCE L/017/2003 

JOCE L/279/2002 

JOCE L/174/2002 

JOCE L/296/2002 

JOCE L/314/2002 

JOCE L/269/2005 

JOCE L/236/2001 

JOCE L/189/2001 

JOCE L/012/2002 

JOCE L/150/2000 

JOCE L/042/2000 

JOCE L/198/1999 

JOCE L/232/1999 

JOCE L/334/1997 

JOCE L/078/1996 

10 

38 

66 

49 

15 

14 

52 

21 

12 

21 

60 

75 

11 

20 

1 

26 

1 

35 

31 

1 

1 

30 

3 

13 

1 

50 

1 

15 

24 

25 

31 

2004-11-27 

2004-04-16 

2004-02-27 

2004-04-02 

2003-08-09 

2003-12-23 

2003-06-18 

2003-04-30 

2003-09-11 

2003-03-24 

2002-10-31 

2002-11-18 

2003-02-14 

2003-01-22 

2003-03-24 

2002-11-18 

2003-01-22 

2002-10-17 

2002-07-04 

2002-10-30 

2002-11-18 

2005-10-14 

2001-09-05 

2001-07-11 

2002-01-15 

2000-06-23 

2000-02-15 

1999-07-30 

1999-09-02 

1997-12-05 

1996-03-28 

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