Brussels, 12/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - Pending the new Commission guidelines on the funding of airports and State aid for the start-up of airline companies in regional airports, the Committee of the Regions meeting in plenary adopted, on 7 July, an own-initiative opinion stating its stance on the issue. The report by Gordon Keymer (EPP, UK), Chairman of the District Council of Tandridge, who stresses the importance of State aid for development in Europe, recommends dealing with such aid on a case by case basis and according to merit, in order to maintain competitiveness and cohesion between regions. With a concern for consistency, it mainly calls on the Commission to suspend the drafting of these guidelines until the judgement has been given on the Ryanair affair (EUROPE 8840). Furthermore, the report mainly recommends that aid granted by a public entity should be banned only when the amount exceeds that granted to a private investor (principle of private investor in a market economy). The report also calls for the de minimis principle to be applied to small airports by exempting them from the obligation to notify aid below a certain amount, or for routes on which the volume of passengers is below a certain threshold. Finally, it rejects the proposal allowing the first entrant on a given route to exclude potential rivals during five years, without taking into account the fact that later arrivals might be able to provide a more efficient and less costly service. Furthermore, the report rejects the ban on granting aid for new routes when a route already seems to exist from another airport located in the same area of economic attraction, the reason given being that this could be tantamount to protecting the existing operators and airports against competition. The report concludes that the approach suggested by the Commission could considerably restrict the ability of regional authorities to finance regional airports and the development of new routes linking the region to the rest of the European market. The Commission document may be consulted at the following address: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/transport/air/rules/state_air_consultation_en.htm