Brussels, 24/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - In order to facilitate the preparation of State aid notifications by Member States and their assessment by the Commission, the Commission has adopted a regulation establishing a new and compulsory notification form. In addition to the detailed provisions relating to this form and to its content, the new regulation contains details of notifications and annual reports referred to in Regulation (EC) No 659/1999. The regulation also comprises provisions for the calculation of time-limits in all procedures concerning State aid, and of the interest rate for the recovery of unlawful aid. The new regulation applies to aid in all sectors.
The new regulation also contains new rules to simply notification for certain alterations of existing aid schemes. In this respect, such simplified arrangements are accepted if the Commission has been regularly informed on the implementation of the existing aid concerned. In the interests of legal certainty, the new Regulation clarifies that small increases of up to 20% of the original budget of an aid scheme, in particular to take account of the effects of inflation, do not need to be notified to the Commission, in so far as the Commission considers that these changes are unlikely to affect the Commission's original assessment of the compatibility provided the other conditions of the aid scheme remain unchanged.
The regulation also establishes a new format for the annual report which brings improvements to the former mechanism. This novelty corresponds to the Commission's wish to amend the application modalities for Article 21 of the regulation (EC) 659/1999, which makes it compulsory for Member States to communicate annual reports on it on all existing aid schemes - or on all individual aid schemes granted outside an approved aid scheme - which are not subject to the obligation of presenting reports in accordance to a conditional decision. In order to allow it to discharge its responsibilities in monitoring aid, the Commission needs to receive accurate information from Member States about the types and amounts of aid being granted under existing aid schemes.
On the subject of fixing the interest rate for the recovery of illegal aid, the new regulation complies with the general financial practices whereby it is appropriate to fix the recovery interest rate as an annual percentage rate. The inter-bank swap rate should be adjusted in order to reflect general levels of increased commercial risk outside the banking sector, the aim being to re-establish the situation existing before aid was unlawfully granted. On the basis of the information on inter-bank swap rates the Commission should establish a single recovery interest rate for each Member State. In the interest of legal certainty and equal treatment, it is appropriate to fix the precise method by which the interest rate should be calculated, and to provide for the publication of the recovery interest rate applicable at any given moment, as well as relevant previously applicable rates. Given that a State aid grant may reduce a beneficiary undertaking's medium term financing requirements, the Commission has also chosen to come into line with general financial practice, defining the medium term as five years. The recovery interest rate should therefore be calculated on the basis of an annual percentage rate fixed for 5 years. Thus, the recovery interest rate applicable in the first year of the recovery period should be applied for the first 5 years of the recovery period. The recovery interest rate applicable in the sixth year of the recovery period for the following 5 years, and so on.