Brussels, 25/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 25 April, the European Commission adopted a regulation which exempts from EU state aid rules aid of up to €500,000 per company over a three-year period that is granted as compensation for the provision of services of general economic interest (SGEI). Compensation of this magnitude is deemed unproblematic because it is too low to have any impact on trade and competition in the single market. This regulation will remain in force until 31 December 2018 and is the final pillar of a new raft of rules on state aid for SGEI, which amends rules on the “Monti-Kroes package” of 2005, a large part of which was adopted last December by the European Commission (see EUROPE 10520).
The new regulation adopted sets out the conditions under which support granted to SGEI providers does not constitute state aid within the meaning of Article 107 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). It is also a major simplification for both public authorities and service providers, because it will considerably reduce the administrative burden for granting public service compensation for small SGEI. At the same time, it increases legal certainty, because it establishes a clear threshold, below which SGEI compensation does not constitute state aid within the meaning of EU rules. Amounts of up to € 500,000 over three years are now deemed not to constitute aid. This threshold is higher than the general de minimis thresholds in the field of state aid (€200,000 over three years) because it can be assumed that the support measures are at least in part compensating for the extra costs incurred for the provision of a public service. The other elements in the new regulation adopted in December 2011 are: - a communication, which outlines the fundamental ideas underpinning the SGEI (aid or absence of aid, economic activity, convergence of public procurement procedures, etc); - a revised decision expanding the range of social services exempt from the obligation of notifying public services compensation received and which lowers the notification threshold for other public services from €30 million to €15 million; - a revised framework introducing a more exact method for calculating the amount of compensation granted outside the social services sector. (FG/transl.fl)