On Wednesday 15 March, the European Commission welcomed the first positive conclusions from the modernisation of its State aid policy.
The State aid scoreboard it published on Wednesday shows that around 95% of the new aid measures for which the expenditure has been declared was granted under the new General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) and so could be disbursed without the prior authorisation of the Commission and, therefore, more quickly.
Nearly 43% of total expenditure on aid to SMEs came within the scope of the GBER, compared to 46% for research, development and innovation aid, 55% for aid to regional development, 69% for aid to employment and 96% for training support.
Additionally, the measures notified that are still subject to a more thorough level of scrutiny generally cover higher budgets and spending than in the past. In 2015, 29% of the measures notified that had been implemented exceeded €5 million in terms of expenditure, or an increase of nearly 5% in absolute terms, compared to 2014.
In 2015, the member states spent €98.2 billion, or 0.67% of EU GDP, on State aid, compared to €101.2 billion (0.72% of EU GDP) in 2014. Spending on State aid increasingly pursues objectives of common general interest, such as regional development, employment, environmental protection, research, development and innovation, venture capital and support for SMEs. In 2015, this was the case for more than 85% of the total level of State aid expenditure, constituting an increase of around 10% in absolute terms compared to 2012.
Lastly, around 46% of total State aid spending in the EU concerned the environment and energy saving. 15 member states focused the majority of their spending on public support to achieve these targets, particularly their targets in the field of renewable energy. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)