Regulation 2015/1588 - Application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU to certain categories of horizontal State aid (codification) - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 248/1

Council Regulation (EC) No 994/98 (2) has been substantially amended (3). In the interests of clarity and rationality that Regulation should be codified.

Under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the assessment of compatibility of aid with the internalmarket essentially rests with the Commission.

The proper functioning of the internal market requires strict and efficient application of the rules of competition with regard to State aid.

The Commission should be enabled to declare by means of regulations, in areas where the Commission has sufficient experience to define general compatibility criteria, that certain specified categories of aid are compatible with the internal market pursuant to one or more of the provisions of Article 107(2) and (3) TFEU and are exempted from the procedure provided for in Article 108(3) thereof.

Block exemption regulations ensure transparency and legal certainty. They can be directly applied by national courts, without prejudice to Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union and to Article 267 TFEU.

State aid is an objective notion defined in Article 107(1) TFEU. The power of the Commission to adopt block exemptions as provided for in this Regulation only applies to measures that fulfil all the criteria of Article 107(1) TFEU and therefore constitute State aid. Inclusion of a certain category of aid in this Regulation or in an exemption regulation does not predetermine the qualification of a measure as State aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU.

The Commission should be enabled to declare that, under certain conditions, aid to small and medium-sized enterprises, aid in favour of research, development and innovation, aid in favour of environmental protection, aid in favour of employment and training, and aid that complies with the map approved by the Commission for each Member State for the grant of regional aid is compatible with the internal market and not subject to the notification requirement.

Innovation has become a Union policy priority in the context of ‘Innovation Union’, one of the Europe 2020 flagship initiatives. Moreover, many aid measures for innovation are relatively small and create no significant distortions of competition.

In the culture and heritage conservation sector, a number of measures taken by Member States might not constitute aid because they do not fulfil all the criteria of Article 107(1)TFEU, for example because the beneficiary does not carry out an economic activity or because there is no effect on trade between Member States. However, to the extent measures in the field of culture and heritage conservation do constitute State aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU, the Commission should be enabled to declare that, under certain conditions, that aid is compatible with the internal market and not subject to the notification requirement in Article 108(3) TFEU. Small culture, creation and heritage conservation projects do not typically give rise to any significant distortion, and recent cases have shown that such aid has limited effects on...