EU Commission extends EU State aid regulations and carries out adjustments

Oct 20, 2020 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The European Commission has decided to extend EU State aid regulations, set to expire at the end of 2020, by one to three years and to make adjustments to cushion the impact of COVID-19.

The background to these extensions is the aptitude tests carried out in the context of the modernization initiative to assess whether State aid regulations should be further extended or updated.

In summary, the following EU subsidy regulations will be extended:

• Guidelines on regional State aid 2014-2020
• Guidelines on State aid to promote risk finance investments
• Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy
• Communication on the execution of important projects of common European interest (IPCEI)
• Communication on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to short-term export-credit insurance
• General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER)
• De-minimis Regulation
• Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring non-financial undertakings in difficulty

Companies that have been negatively impacted as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19 and were not able to receive certain aid should continue to be able to receive support under the GBER and other guidelines through targeted amendments. For companies that received regional investment aid under the GBER, any job losses due to the outbreak of COVID-19 are not to be seen as a relocation of jobs and therefore do not constitute a breach of the commitments made by the companies.

In addition, the Commission has proposed to prolong the de minimis Regulation for SGEIs (Commission Regulation No. 360/2012 of 25 April 2012 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union on de minimis aid to companies providing services of general economic interest) for a period of three years and to make adjustments so that companies that have been negatively impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19 can continue to receive such aid.

European Commission – Press release IP/20/1247 (2 July 2020)