L 173/84
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
30.6.2022
6.
Furthermore, regional aid can only be effective in promoting or facilitating the economic development of assisted areas provided that it is awarded to stimulate additional investment or economic activity in those areas.
In certain very limited, well-identified cases, the obstacles faced by these areas in attracting or maintaining economic activity may be so severe or permanent that investment aid may not be sufficient to enable the area to develop.
In this situation may regional investment aid be supplemented by regional operating aid.
7.
In 2019, the European Commission (‘the Commission’) launched an evaluation of the regional aid framework to assess whether its regional aid guidelines were still fit for purpose.
The results (8) showed that, in principle, the rules work well, but they require some improvements to reflect economic developments.
In addition, the ‘European Green Deal’ (9), ‘A new industrial strategy for Europe’ (10) and ‘Shaping Europe’s digital future’ (11), may be taken into account by the Commission when assessing the impact of regional aid, which require making some amendments to the rules.
In this context, other state aid rules are also undergoing a revision process and the Commission is paying particular attention to the scope of each of the thematic guidelines and also to the possibilities to potentially combine different kinds of aid for the same investment.
As such, support for initial investments for new environmentally friendly technologies that contribute to the decarbonisation of production processes in industry, including energy-intensive industries such as steel, can be assessed, depending on their exact features, in particular under the state aid rules for research, development and innovation or for environmental protection and energy.
Regional aid can also be combined with other types of aid.
It is possible, for example, for the same investment project, to combine regional aid with support under the state aid rules for environmental protection and energy if that investment project facilitates the development of an assisted area and at the same time increases the level of environmental protection to an extent that the investment or part of it qualifies for support under both thematic rules and the provisions of both sets of rules are complied with.
In this way, EEA States can incentivise reaching both objectives in an optimal way, while avoiding overcompensation.
[...] (12).
7a.
ESA notes that certain policy instruments and legislative provisions referred to by the Commission may not be incorporated into the EEA Agreement.
While taking into account the particular legislative situation of the EEA EFTA States, ESA will nonetheless, with a view to ensuring uniform application of state aid provisions, and equal conditions of competition throughout the EEA, generally apply the same points of reference as the Commission Guidelines when assessing the compatibility of regional aid with the functioning of the EEA Agreement *.
The present Guidelines consequently include references to European Union legislation and policy documents found in the Commission Guidelines **.
This does not imply that the EEA EFTA States are obliged to comply with legislation which has not been implemented into the EEA Agreement.
(8) See the Commission staff working document on the results of the Fitness Check of 30 October 2020 – SWD(2020) 257 final.
(9) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 11 December 2019 – COM(2019) 640 final.
(10) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 10 March 2020 – COM(2020) 102 final.
(11) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 19 February 2020 – COM(2020) 67 final.
(12) [...].
(*) Based on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Just Transition Fund – COM(2020) 22 final, the Commission also included in its Guidelines specific provisions to facilitate support in the context of the Just Transition Fund (‘JTF’) in line with cohesion principles.
These provisions are not included in the present Guidelines as, at the time of their adoption, it was not sufficiently clear how the JTF would be dealt with in the context of the EEA Agreement to stipulate conditions.
Depending on the future development, ESA may consider revising the present Guidelines on these and other points.
(**) Some text has nevertheless been deleted compared with the Commission Guidelines.
These deletions include text referring to legal instruments and provisions which are not part of, or have no equivalent in, the EEA Agreement, and text where, as mentioned in the preceding footnote, it is too unclear at this point what the implications of the legal instrument referred to will be in the context of the EEA Agreement.
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