Brussels, 02/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - To illustrate his point, on Wednesday 1 December, as he announced the extension of the temporary framework for state aid (see EUROPE 10268), Commission Vice-President Joaquín Almunia picked out a few figures from the “scoreboard” on state aid to the financial sector and to the real economy published that same day.
Financial sector. Almunia stressed firstly the importance of the aid made available by the Commission to this sector between October 2008 and October 2010. The total amount was €4,589 billion, of which only €1,106.6 billion was in fact taken up by the banks in 2009 (€957 billion in 2008). 76% of aid was granted in the form of loans or public guarantees which would only have an impact on public finances, if they were called upon. Recapitalisation, on the other hand, represented 12% and impaired asset relief 9%. The United Kingdom, with €850 billion, heads the 22 countries which used public aid, followed by Ireland (€723 billion), Denmark (€600 billion), Germany (€592 billion) and France (€351 billion).
This combined state aid and the Commission's introduction of rules meant that financial stability could be maintained while, at the same time, competition distortions were kept, as far as possible, to a minimum, Almunia said.
Non-financial sector. The total amount of aid authorised under crisis measures was €81.3 billion (excluding aid to the automotive industry) since October 2008. Here, too, however, the amount taken up was much less (€2.2 billion). “Traditional” aid remained stable at €73.2 billion or 0.62% of GDP in 2009. Equally, the trend towards re-directing aid towards horizontal objectives (research, innovation, the environment), which is less distortive of competition, continued, the commissioner was happy to note. Aid to industry and services amounted to €58.1 billion or 0.49% of GDP of which 84% Member States earmarked for horizontal objectives of common interest.
The scoreboard showed, too, that the administrative burden for states was reduced, in that around 19% of total aid is granted through block exemptions. Another 69% of state aid is assessed by the Commission under aid schemes. Only 12% of the total aid is the subject of an individual assessment. At the end of June 2010, 89% of the total amount of illegal and incompatible aid had been repaid to states, a significant improvement on 2004. (F.G./transl.rt)