Brussels, 12/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - State aid to the regions will, in future, be better targeted, the relevant commissioners pledge. The Open Days activities did not choose to overlook an indepth discussion on this during a conference held on Thursday 11 October. Public consultation will be initiated at the end of the year on the new rules to apply to regional state aid.
Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia shed some light on what the new guidelines will be. Regional investment aid to large companies should only be allowed in the least developed regions, and transparency must be the watchword. National and regional authorities would be expected to adopt high standards of transparency for the amounts and beneficiaries of their support as, as Almunia points out, “public authorities should make an extra effort to keep competitors and citizens informed on how they spend taxpayers' money”. Finally, evaluation systems could be introduced to make sure that aid does bring the intended results. “Regional aid can be considered compatible only if it gives an incentive to decide to invest in an assisted region or if it can determine the location of an investment”, the commissioner said. His counterpart responsible for regional development, Johannes Hahn, said the initiative on modernisation of state aid “would undoubtedly make it easier for regions to implement effective smart specialisation strategies, using both regional development funding and facilities under state aid rules”. He also called for the differences between state aid schemes to be reduced in order to have a system where border discrepancies are kept as low as possible. (MD/transl.jl)