Brussels, 27/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has amended its guidelines on regional state aid to reflect more closely the situation in the French overseas departments, the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands, as required by the new Article 299(2) of the Treaty of Amsterdam. This new article introduces specific measures for the very remote regions, given the structural economic and social situation compounded by their remoteness, insularity, small size, difficult topography and climate, and economic dependence on a few products, "the permanence and combination of which severely restrain their development". It will be recalled that the Commission adopted on 14 March last, after extensive consultations, its report on the measures designed to implement Article 299(2) of the Treaty on the outermost regions of the EU, a report forwarded to the Council and Parliament (see EUROPE of 15 March, page 8).
The new decision gives effect to one aspect of this report. Indeed, by amending its guidelines on regional aid on the basis of Article 87 of the EC Treaty, the Commission is implementing to the letter the measures on Community scrutiny of state aid announced in the report. This amendment relates to two main points:
1) the grant of operating aid which is not progressively reduced and is not limited in time will be allowed in the outermost regions eligible for regional aid when the aid is intended to reduce the additional costs arising in the pursuit of economic activity from the handicaps identified in Article 299(2) of the Treaty;
2) the derogation under Article 87(3) of the Treaty (on eligibility for state aid) will be extended to the regions concerned solely by virtue of their status at ultra-peripheral regions, but with due regard to the national population ceiling eligible for national regional aid in the Member State concerned.
The new rules accentuate the special treatment enjoyed by these regions in the framework of Community scrutiny of state aid, under Article 87 of the Treaty, since the regions already benefit from the highest ceilings for investment aid in the Union (up to 75% in the case of small businesses in the French overseas territories) and the possibility of transport aid.
The measures announced by the Commission in its report of 14 March dealing with areas other than state aid will be gradually introduced and/or submitted to the Council in the weeks and months to come.