Rules and Regulations, State Aid Ole Damsgaard, Joint Secretariat April 20th, 2016 – Faroe Islands

EU regulation overrules The foundation of the Interreg Programmes Regulations and delegated acts from the Commission Programme specific rules Where regulations open more options National rules Where no EU-regulation exist National Rules Programme Rules EU Rules

What is State aid? “Any aid granted by a Member State…which distorts competition by favouring certain undertakings or the production of certain goods shall…be incompatible with the internal market” EU Treaty, Article 107

What is an undertaking? Undertakings are entities engaged in an economic activity, regardless their legal status and the way they are financed: Charities, clubs or associations, public bodies, universities, social enterprises, private firms… It does not matter whether the entity aims to generate profit An undertaking can be engaged in economic and non-economic activities at the same time

What is an economic activity? ‘any activity consisting in offering goods or services on a given market’ Also the case where the activity could, in principle, be carried out by a private body!

Can any of the project’s activities/products/services have the character of direct aid to SMEs? Identify the flows of resources from the Programme through the Project to SMEs (end beneficiaries) if not negligible then State aid Is the aid given to individual SMEs or has it a broad character ( e.g. distributed through project web site)

De minimis most suitable tool for end users De minimis has a maximum threshold of EUR 200.000 and a grant rate of 100% (However: all kind of national public support has to be included)

De minimis does not cover all economic activities! Export activities excluded Transport restricted Specific rules for agriculture, fishery and aquaculture (e.g. food processing on farm)

Self-declaration 1

Not in difficulty declaration 2

What happens if the rules not are kept? “The MA is entitled, in whole or in part, to terminate this Grant Contract and/or to demand repayment of amounts already paid to the LP from the co-financing, in full or in part..” Programme Manual

Thank you for listening Ole Damsgaard ole.damsgaard@interreg-npa.eu