Brussels, 17/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 17 February, the representatives of the islands commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) met EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia to discuss the application of new European rules on state aid to the island regions. Leading the delegation, the president of the Region of Sardinia, Ugo Cappellacci, called on the commissioner for greater flexibility in the state aid regime and conditions to put the islands on an equal footing with the continental territories.
Among the proposals discussed at the meeting, they called for the de minimis threshold to be increased, as they argue that small levels of state aid cause no great disturbance to the market. The commissioner said that he was “open to modifying the threshold”.
Another subject for discussion was the granting of aid to cover the higher costs of transport faced by island businesses. Cappellacci lamented the fact that “the measures on territorial continuity are not enough to resolve the problem of transport costs”. He also pointed out that the “size of the local market of the island regions is smaller than that of the continental regions and their territory does not allow economies of scale and lack of natural resources”.
Finally, they took stock of the poor awareness in the island regions of competition rules and state aid and called on the Commission to provide “training efforts” in this area. (SD, stag/transl.fl)