Brussels, 19/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission provided clarification on Thursday 19 May on what it understands by “state aid” that breaches EU law as it could distort competition. It believes that this guidance will facilitate public investment in the EU by helping member states and companies to design public funding in ways which do not distort competition.
It says that public investment for the construction or upgrade of infrastructure does not constitute state aid, if it does not directly compete with other infrastructure of the same kind. This is typically the case for roads, railway infrastructure, inland waterways and water supply and waste water networks. However, infrastructure in areas such as energy, broadband, airports or ports is often in competition with similar infrastructure.
When infrastructure is built with public financing that involves state aid in line with EU rules, public authorities need to make sure that such aid is not passed on to the operator or users of this infrastructure. The communication states that this criterion is respected if an operator or user pays a market price to use the infrastructure in question, for instance as a result of a competitive, transparent, non-discriminatory and unconditional tender.
EU state aid control focuses on public investments that have effect cross-border, the Commission says. Public financing of certain cultural activities which are not commercial but provided for free or against a minimal fee, will not be covered by state aid rules. Lastly, if public authorities buy goods or services through tenders, which respect EU rules on public procurement, this is in principle sufficient to ensure that the transaction is free of state aid. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)