Brussels, 23/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Commission published the "spring 2002 update" of State aid, that shows that the level of national State aid went from 105 billion euro in 1996 to 82 bn in 2000. When broken down by country, Germany granted the most State aid in absolute terms (25 bn) in 2000. Followed by France (15.7 bn) and Italy (10.4 bn). In relative terms, State aid represented 0.99% of the Community's Internal Gross Product (GDP), an average that conceals important differences between Member States: the share of aid compared to GDP ranges between 0.46% in the United Kingdom to 1.44% in Finland.
Despite the persistence of these gaps, the spring 2002 scoreboard shows that the general tendency is towards a fall in the level of State aid and a better use of the funds thanks to horizontal schemes such as environmental protection, the development of SMEs, research and development, job creation, etc.. In 2001, the Commission recorded over a thousand cases of State aid. Some 44% of them were in the manufacturing sector, the coal industry and the services sector, 39% in agriculture, 10% in fishing and 7% in transport. For all the final decisions taken by the Commission in the period 1999-2001, only 7% were negative. Commissioner Monti commented: "Whilst I welcome the general reduction in State aid levels, it is undeniable that the cumulative effect of some 82 billion euro of aid has a considerable distortive effect on competition (…) Member states need to further reduce their aid levels and continue the process of redirecting aid to areas of common interest such a the environment, employment, research and development and small and medium-sized enterprises. Their action should be aimed at reviewing national aid policies, assessing whether the granting of State aid is always the most appropriate instrument to correct certain market failures and evaluating the effectiveness of the aid that is awarded". (Also see page 14).