State aid Modernisation Changing the balance of State aid control Northern Ireland State aid Awareness Seminar 16 September 2014 Miek Van der Wee European Commission DG Competition

SAM – Main drivers Europe 2020: Targeting EU policies at fostering smart, sustainable and inclusive growth Economic & financial crisis  Enforcement challenges Need to modernise rules to protect effectiveness of SA policy (faster decision making, focus on most distortive aid, strengthen economic reasoning, …) Budgetary constraints: Focus on quality public expenditure Expiry of SA instruments in 2013 (GBER, guidelines) New programming cycle for ESI Funds

SAM – Main objectives Foster growth in a competitive internal market Facilitate the granting of “good aid” (Europe 2020) Discourage ineffective or counter-productive aid Focus enforcement on cases with biggest impact Less ex ante control of potentially less distortive aid Emphasis on ex post monitoring, evaluation & transparency Streamline rules and speed up decisions Simplification and harmonisation of rules Improvement of procedures

SAM – Building blocks Notice on notion of aid SAM Principles Review De Minimis Reg. SAM Principles Clarification & simplification Common compatibility criteria Strengthened partnership with MS New Enabling Regulation New GBER Review major guidelines Review Procedural Reg.

SAM – Legislative programme - 1 Legal instruments Procedural Regulation OJ 31/07/2013 Enabling Regulation OJ 22/07/2013 De Minimis Regulation OJ 24/12/2013 General Block Exemption Regulation OJ 17/06/2014 Broadband guidelines OJ 26/01/2013 Regional aid guidelines OJ 23/07/2013 Short term credit OJ 19/12/2012 Cinema OJ 15/11/2013 Risk finance OJ 15/01/2014

SAM – Legislative programme - 2 Legal instruments Airports and airlines OJ 04/04/2014 Energy & Environment OJ 28/06/2014 R&D&I OJ 27/06/2014 Important Projects of Common EU Interest OJ 20/06/2014 Rescue & restructuring OJ 31/07/2014 Evaluation (Staff paper) 28/05/2014 Transparency (Communication) 21/05/2014 Notion of aid For overview of all revised SAM texts: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/modernisation/index_en .html

Impact 1: Facilitate granting "good aid" Still to be notified (guidelines/Treaty) notified (guidelines/Treaty) GBER extension (notification & intensity threshold) GBER extension Exemption areas GBER extension (new types and categories) Notified aid Block-exempted De minimis (aid amount) De Minimis Type of aid

Impact 1: Facilitate granting "good aid" New categories of aid brought under GBER: Aid to compensate natural disaster damage Operating aid in remote & in sparsely populated areas Individual regional aid measures Aid for urban development projects in assisted regions Aid for broadband infrastructure Aid for start-ups, for SME financing, for innovation clusters & research infrastructure Aid for culture and heritage conservation, for sport and multifunctional recreational facilities Aid for the remediation of contaminated sites Aid for renewables and district heating ….

Impact 1: Facilitate granting "good aid" 2/3 aid amounts and 3/4 aid measures could be "GBER-ised' Aid amounts Aid measures

Impact 2: Stricter control of "bad aid" Assessment of potentially more distortive types of aid on the basis of "common assessment criteria": contribution to a well-defined objective of common interest need for state intervention appropriateness of the aid measure incentive effect proportionality of the aid (aid limited to the minimum necessary) avoidance of undue negative effects on competition and trade between Member States

Impact 3: Ex Ante  Ex Post  Transparency Smaller proportion of aid will be scrutinised by EC Aid under GBER Awards under approved aid schemes Shift from ex ante control to : Ex Post Evaluation Ex Post Monitoring Transparency

Impact 3: Ex Post - Evaluation Purpose: Improve quality of public expenditure Scope: Large schemes Evaluation questions: Did the aid alter behaviour of beneficiaries? Were the objectives of the aid achieved? Independent evaluator Assessment and approval Design Evaluation Monitoring Implemen-tation

Impact 3: Ex post - Monitoring Ex Post Monitoring since 2006 221 schemes monitored 28% of monitored schemes found to be problematic Widening of GBER will be accompanied by increased monitoring efforts

Impact 3: Ex Post - Transparency Purpose: Improve accountability of public spending Promote compliance (enables firms to verify legality of aid granted to competitors) Publication on Central/Regional website of Full text of aid scheme or aid granting decision Identity of granting authority Info on individual aid awards > € 500,000: Identity of beneficiary, aid amount, date of granting, NUTS 3 region, NACE code

Impact 4: New Partnership with MS Extension of GBER  Increased responsibility for MS Implementation aid measures without ex ante control by EC Need to ensure effective control at national level Strengthen EC-MS partnership Country Coordinator Network in COMP High level Country visits  Portfolio approach Guidance on new rules via share platform ECN-ET High Level Forum + Working Groups WG on SAM implementation (GBER, Best Practices…)) WGs on specific topics (EEAG)

Thank you Any questions?