On Tuesday 28 May, the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, announced the European Commission’s approval of two major Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs). One concerns the hydrogen sector (see other article). The other, the first IPCEI in the health sector, IPCEI Med4Cure, aims to support research, innovation and early industrial deployment of healthcare products and innovative pharmaceutical production processes.
This IPCEI was notified jointly by six Member States (Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Spain). The latter’s participation will be partly covered by the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’, as Spain has integrated this project into its national recovery and resilience plan.
Member States to provide up to €1 billion in State aid. The European Commission has estimated that this public funding should unlock an additional €5.9 billion of private investment.
The project will involve 13 companies operating in one or more Member States in 14 projects.
The IPCEI as a whole should be completed by 2036. It is expected to create 6,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly.
Safeguards to maintain fair competition
The project includes a recovery mechanism to enable states that have financially supported the IPCEI Med4Cure budget to recover public funds, should the projects prove to be more successful than expected in the future, thereby generating additional net revenue.
In addition, the results of the project will be shared by the participating companies with the European research and innovation sector and with European industry.
Commenting on the IPCEI tool, Commissioner Vestager emphasised that the European Commission’s IPCEI assessment process was designed to ensure that the aid actually created an ecosystem and was not intended to support a particular company.
More generally, Margrethe Vestager insisted that: “Aid must go where it is needed and there must be a European effect to avoid disrupting a level playing field” the latter being considered by the Commissioner as one of the driving forces behind the IPCEI.
List of companies participating in the IPCEI: https://aeur.eu/f/ceb (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)