Nieuwe Europese regels voor aanmelden staatssteun (en)

In order to facilitate the preparation of State aid notifications by Member States, and their assessment by the Commission, the Commission has established a new and compulsory notification form. That form should be as comprehensive as possible. A new Commission regulation adopted today sets out detailed provisions concerning the form, content and other details of notifications and annual reports referred to in Regulation (EC) No 659/1999. It also sets out provisions for the calculation of time-limits in all procedures concerning State aid and of the interest rate for the recovery of unlawful aid.

The new Regulation applies to aid in all sectors.

Simplified rules on altering existing aid schemes

The new Regulation also contains new rules to simplify notification for certain alterations of existing aid schemes. Such simplified arrangements are accepted if the Commission has been regularly informed on the implementation of the existing aid concerned.

In the interests of legal certainty, the new Regulation clarifies that small increases of up to 20% of the original budget of an aid scheme, in particular to take account of the effects of inflation, do not need to be notified to the Commission. Such modifications are unlikely to affect the Commission's original assessment of the compatibility provided the other conditions of the aid scheme remain unchanged.

Article 21 of Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 requires Member States to submit annual reports to the Commission on all existing aid schemes or individual aid granted outside an approved aid scheme in respect of which no specific reporting obligations have been imposed in a conditional decision.

For the Commission to be able to discharge its responsibilities in monitoring aid, it needs to receive accurate information from Member States about the types and amounts of aid being granted under existing aid schemes. The new Regulation sets out a new and improved standardised reporting format.

Fixing the interest rate for the recovery of illegal aid

The purpose of recovery is to re-establish the situation existing before aid was unlawfully granted. To ensure equal treatment the advantage should be measured objectively from the moment when the aid is available to the beneficiary. In accordance with general financial practice it is appropriate to fix the recovery interest rate as an annual percentage rate.

The volume and frequency of transactions between banks results in an interest rate that is consistently measurable and statistically significant, and should therefore form the basis of the recovery interest rate.

The inter-bank swap rate should however be adjusted in order to reflect general levels of increased commercial risk outside the banking sector. On the basis of the information on inter-bank swap rates the Commission should establish a single recovery interest rate for each Member State. In the interest of legal certainty and equal treatment, it is appropriate to fix the precise method by which the interest rate should be calculated, and to provide for the publication of the recovery interest rate applicable at any given moment, as well as relevant previously applicable rates.

A State aid grant may be deemed to reduce a beneficiary undertaking's medium term financing requirements. For these purposes, and in line with general financial practice, the medium term may be defined as 5 years. The recovery interest rate should therefore be calculated on the basis of an annual percentage rate fixed for 5 years.

Given the objective of restoring the situation existing before the aid was unlawfully granted, and in accordance with general financial practice, the recovery interest rate to be fixed by the Commission should be annually compounded.

For the same reasons, the recovery interest rate applicable in the first year of the recovery period should be applied for the first 5 years of the recovery period. The recovery interest rate applicable in the sixth year of the recovery period for the following 5 years, and so on.

This Regulation should apply to recovery decisions notified after the date of entry into force of this Regulation.