The European Commission launched, on Tuesday 23 February, a public consultation inviting all parties to provide comments on revised State Aid rules on Important Projects of Common European Interest (‘IPCEI Communication’). Interested parties have eight weeks, until 20 April 2021, to respond to the consultation.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the Commission responsible for Competition policy, said: “We now invite stakeholders to comment on a targeted revision of these rules, for example to further facilitate the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in these projects and to ensure they are truly open and transparent to all Member States that wish to participate”.
The IPCEI Communication aims at facilitating the emergence of large-scale cross-border projects of significant benefit to the EU economy and its citizens by addressing important market failures in strategic value chains.
The Commission’s assessment showed that “some targeted adjustments may be necessary to clarify the relevant State Aid rules and certain notions in line with the Commission’s case practice”, the institution explains.
In this context, the Commission is proposing a number of targeted changes to reflect the experience gained from the application of the current rules and to align the Communication with current EU priorities:
- to clarify certain notions (for example, the definition of “integrated project”) and provide further guidance on certain criteria set out in the Communication, such as the rules applicable when public support from different sources, including EU funds, is combined to fund an IPCEI;
- to facilitate the direct and indirect involvement in IPCEIs of SMEs (the draft revised Communication proposes to simplify the Commission’s assessment where State Aid, notably to SMEs, is less likely to unduly distort competition, for example, due to its amount);
- to further enhance the open character of IPCEIs (by, for example, providing that all Member States must be given a genuine opportunity to participate in an emerging project) and their consistency with EU policies, notably enabling the green and digital transformation.
The current IPCEI Communication has been prolonged until the end of 2021 in order to provide predictability and legal certainty during the revision process.
The proposed text of the IPCEI Communication will also be discussed in a meeting between the Commission and Member States that will take place towards the end of the consultation period. The adoption of the new IPCEI Communication is planned for the second half of 2021.
Link to the proposed text: https://bit.ly/3usctjB
Link to the public consultation: http://bit.ly/3dEFgeM (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)