Brussels, 24/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has taken stock of the recent developments and sketched out future prospects of the Commission's State aid policy. Speaking before several hundred people on Friday 21 November, the commissioner stressed the progress made by the State aid action plan since it was inaugurated in 2005.
In the context of the financial crisis, “State aid rules have become sexy, so to say”, she said. In these difficult times, Community regulations, she said, “provide many ways in which governments can spend taxpayers' money to help the economy, to kickstart growth and to boost jobs”. She called however on governments to “avoid the costly trap of a subsidy race”, referring to concerns expressed by the EU's automotive sector given the possibility of domestic subsidies in favour of American rivals. “The European economy and European taxpayers will be better off if politicians choose another, more effective, route”, she stressed.
The State aid action plan was introduced in 2005 for a four-year period, mainly in the aim of “becoming more efficient”. The commissioner welcomed the results of the first three years of the Plan. Fifteen new texts have been adopted including - in 2008 - guidelines on environmental protection, communication on guarantees, and block exemption regulation. Also, the commissioner pointed out, the percentages of member state GDP spent in State aid has gone from 2% in the eighties to around 0.6% at present.
The next stages of the action plan will consist of improving procedures, at both national and community level. In particular, the simplification package will aim to make more effective the processing of dossiers that “do not raise competition problems”. The package will include the following elements: a code of best practice to make each stage of the State aid inquiry more effective and foreseeable. In practical terms, this would consist of better communication with the member state during preparation of the notification, or a reward for member states that submit notifications developed in line with Commission requirements. Finally, the procedure will be simplified in order to allow accelerated approval of notifications that do not give rise to competition problems. The commissioner believes that 15% of cases currently notified are likely to be assessed according to such a procedure, but she hopes to see this percentage considerably increase once member states are used to the new procedure. The simplification package could be implemented by mid 2009. Finally, the commissioner recalled the draft communication on enforcement of State aid law by national courts. If the latter are well informed of the powers available to them in this respect, application of rules at national level “is key to procedural efficiency”, Ms Kroes repeated. Consultation launched on this communication of 22 September was welcomed, said the commissioner, adding it would be adopted by the College early 2009.
The Commission also published a special edition of its bulletin on competition, devoted to the theme of State aid, and available at: http: //ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/publications/cpn/2008_special_sa.pdf. (C.D.transl.jl)