Özet:

On 8 May 2012, the Commission adopted its Communication on State aid modernisation. Two years later, most elements of the reform have come into force. This was the most comprehensive overhaul in the history of State aid control. First, the Council quickly agreed to amendments of the Enabling Regulation, enlarging the scope of measures that can be exempted from notification, and of the Procedural Regulation, enhancing the investigative powers of the Commission and introducing the possibility for the Commission to intervene in national litigation. Second, the Commission issued new versions, based on a common structure, of its horizontal guidelines and frameworks: regional aid, risk finance, environmental protection with the addition of energy, research and development and innovation, rescuing and restructuring of undertakings in difficulty, a new document concerning important projects of common European interest, and some important sectorial instruments (broadband, aviation). Third, the Commission adopted a new de minimis regulation and a new, comprehensive block exemption regulation, intended to cover the majority of national aid measures. Fourth, a new notice on the notion of aid, yet to be finally adopted, should provide interpretative guidance. The result of the exercise is a considerable clarification of the rules, an improvement of the procedural tools and a limitation of the obligation to notify State aid projects. In turn, this should allow the Commission to work more efficiently, to reduce the duration of its procedures and to focus on the most distortive measures.

Anahtar Kelimeler: