Brussels, 12/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Commission published in the Official Journal of the European Communities No. C 88 on 12 April 2002 a draft regulation on the application of Articles 87 and 88 covering State aid for the promotion of employment. The draft regulation on employment aid would replace the current EU guidelines on State aid for employment. It proposes to exempt certain types of aid which are allowed under those guidelines, namely aid for the creation of new jobs and aid to encourage employers to recruit disadvantaged categories of worker, such as the long-term unemployed and the disabled. The Commission is seeking comments on the text from interested third parties, in particular the social partners, to reach it in the next month.
In a press statement, the Commission stressed that many labour market measures taken by Member States to promote the creation of employment or the recruitment of disadvantaged workers do not fall under the definition of State aid at all, such as reductions in the taxation of labour or in social costs which apply automatically to all enterprises in a Member State who recruit, for example, long-term unemployed workers. The draft regulation would apply only to those measures which do fall within the definition of State aid under Article 87(1) of the EC Treaty. In its draft regulation, the Commission points out that Regulation No 994/98 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty of 7 May 1998 enables the Commission to adopt group exemption regulations for State aid (the first three exemption regulations on State Aid were adopted at the beginning of December 2000 covering aid to small and medium-sized enterprises, aid for training and aid meeting the so-called de minimis rule: see EUROPE 23 December 2000). Mario Monti Commissioner for Competition said that he looked, "forward to receiving comments on this proposal. The creation of jobs and the integration of disadvantaged workers into the labour market are legitimate objectives of State aid. At the same time the potential for such aid to distort the common market is clear. We have tried to set the right balance, bearing in mind particularly the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the objective of economic and social cohesion." .