Brussels, 22/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - This week, the Commission authorised a Danish regime of tax deductions for gifts to cultural institutions, and Hungarian and Polish State aid in favour of the conservation of national heritage. These financial incentives, which relate mainly to non-profit-making cultural activities, respect European rules on State aid and avoid competition distortions as far as possible, says the Commission, which therefore authorised them as "aid to promote culture and the conservation of heritage". The Danish regime, which allows donors to deduct their gifts from their taxable income, will have a positive effect on the involvement of companies in cultural life. Some thousand cultural institutions will benefit from this regime and the corresponding reduction in the tax revenue of the State has been put at a total in the region of 4.7 million EUR a year. Tax-deductible gifts will be strictly limited to non-profit-making activities on the part of the beneficiary cultural institutions. For the Polish and Hungarian aid, subsidies will go to pay for the renovation and conservation work necessary to protect buildings which have been classified as historical monuments. In Poland, the subsidies will total approximately 4 million EUR. Like most projects which relate to local nature sites, the aid will not affect intra-community trade. The Hungarian regime plans to earmark around 16 million EUR for the renovation of popular or historical sites, which are important from the point of view of cultural heritage or tourism. An additional 4 million EUR will go to pay for events and exhibitions to highlight the Hungarian national heritage. As under the Danish regime, the majority of the Polish and Hungarian funds will be granted to individuals or the non-commercial activities of local authorities, associations and churches which promote national heritage to non-profit-making ends. In these cases, public funding does not constitute State aid, particularly because the activities financed are purely cultural or related to heritage and have no commercial nature. In a small number of projects in Poland and Hungary, in which the beneficiaries of these regimes are companies carrying out activities for lucrative purposes, subsidies may confer an economic advantage on these companies and can thus be considered as State aid. In these cases, aid will be strictly reserved for the conservation of heritage or cultural events or exhibitions, the Commission specifies.