The report by Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg) on the fight against distortive foreign subsidies generally goes back over the proposal that the European Commission made in May 2021 (see EUROPE 12713/1). During a hearing on the subject held on 13 January and attended by business representatives, he detailed why it was in line with the original proposal. As the text could be voted on in the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade in April, EUROPE has been able to consult a first draft of Mr Hansen’s report.
First of all, he is very pleased that the European Commission is the sole enforcer of the regulation, and not Member States.
Secondly, the rapporteur considers the thresholds for considering that a subsidy distorts competition that were proposed by the European Commission to be reasonable and effective. In his view, these thresholds strike “a delicate balance between the ambition to cover a significant number of cases, while allowing the Commission to prioritise its work”.
Moreover, he considers that the ex officio instrument that the European Commission has envisaged adds security and justifies not lowering the thresholds. This instrument allows any case of foreign financing, including cases below the stated thresholds, to be investigated from the moment the European Commission suspects a distortion of competition.
The amendments
Christophe Hansen proposes the European Commission’s option to modify these thresholds by delegated act be slightly adjusted. In his opinion, these acts should be based on a report that suggests the need to amend the regulation.
He also toughens an element of the ex officio procedure: when the European Commission needs to conduct an investigation in a non-EU country, it does not need the consent of the company concerned to do so but only needs the consent of the country where the company is located.
Finally, he adds an option by which the European Commission can enter into discussions with a country if distortive subsidies prove to be a recurrent problem in that country. He clarified that this does not in any way prevent the EU’s executive branch from implementing the measures in its regulation.
See the report: https://bit.ly/3KbeRTJ (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)