On Thursday 25 November the European Commission adopted a revised Communication on State aid rules for Important Projects of Common European Interest.
The revised IPCEI Communication will apply from 1 January 2022 and sets out the criteria against which the Commission will assess Member States’ support for cross-border IPCEIs that address market failures and promote disruptive innovation in key sectors and technologies, as well as investment in infrastructure and efforts that have a positive impact on the wider EU economy.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy, said: “We have made targeted changes to our rules to further enhance the openness of IPCEIs and facilitate the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).”
The revised IPCEI communication:
- further enhances the European and open character of IPCEIs (IPCEIs must, as a rule, involve at least four Member States and must be designed in a transparent and inclusive manner);
- facilitates the participation of SMEs in IPCEIs and reinforces the benefits of their participation through specific arrangements for assessing the compatibility of the aid to SMEs (possibility for smaller companies to have a more limited own contribution to projects than otherwise required);
- aligns its objectives with current EU policy priorities. For example, Member States will have to demonstrate that notified projects comply with the ‘do no significant harm’ principle (the criteria for combining national and EU funds are also specified).
The IPCEI Communication also maintains strong safeguards to ensure that aid is limited to what is necessary and to prevent undue distortions of competition.
Link to the text: https://bit.ly/3CQp6rB (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)