Brussels, 28/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - The 2007 State Aid Scoreboard, published on Thursday 28 June concludes that illegal state aid is in general much more harmful to competition and trade than notified aid. The analysis is based on some 600 Commission decisions on illegal state aid adopted during the past seven years. The Scoreboard shows that illegal aid is a particular problem in the large Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK account for 73% of the illegal aid cases) and in the industry and services sectors. The Scoreboard also indicates that the amount of incompatible aid effectively recovered rose from 25% to 70% over recent years. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes' spokesperson declared to the press that on the basis of the Deggendorf principle, new aid (even if compatible) to companies that have not repaid previous illegal and incompatible aid is systematically suspended. The spokespersons also pointed out that the Commission's draft included in the action plan for state aid aims to simplify notification procedures through the introduction of per category exemptions. He explained that, “if fewer cases need to be examined by the Commission, resources available will be concentrated on problem cases”. The Scoreboard is available at: (http: //ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/state_aid/studies_reports/studies_reports.html). (cd)