Brussels, 14/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - Following a meeting of the Presidium of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) in Trieste on 12 September (see EUROPE 9025), the AER Presidium declared itself overall in favour of the European Commission's proposed State Aid Action Plan. The AER said it was satisfied with the measures relating to the financing of public services, as suggested by the Commission, in particular the exemption from the requirements of prior notification for smaller airports and said it was closely following the Commission's revised proposal on land public transport services and awaited the announced additional proposals regarding social and health services of general interest.
On the State Aid Action Plan, AER President Riccardo Illy said: 'the reform must not hamper the principles of economic, social and territorial cohesion. We regret that the territorial aspects were not clearly mentioned in the Commission's presentation of State Aid in the context of the Lisbon Strategy.' He went on: 'In order to avoid a geographical concentration of assistance, which would have the negative effect of artificially distorting competition between regions eligible for State Aid and those non-eligible, we propose the introduction of regional differentiation in the context of horizontal aids.'
On the exemption for prior notification for smaller airports (see EUROPE 9021), Hakan Sandgren, Vice-President of the AER's Regional Policy Committee and Regional Councillor of Jonkoping in Sweden, said: 'We request, however, that regional airports with a high number of passengers also benefit for this exemption. We should therefore continue to work on the Commission's guidelines on regional airports, published on 6 September 2005. It is imperative that the final texts takes into account the special role of regional airports.'