The study has analysed the impact of current State aid rules on local and regional authorities (LRAs) in order to issue an opinion on the ‘EU State Aid Modernization COM(2012)209 Final’ and to assess in what way LRAs could benefit from the proposed changes. The new proposal of the Commission aims “to foster growth in a strengthened, dynamic and competitive internal market; to focus enforcement on cases with the biggest impact on the internal market; and to streamlined rules and faster decisions.” The analysis has revealed that the Communication still contains more “orientations” and “willingness to change” rather than operational and concrete measures. The study suggests that to have concrete benefits for Regions it is necessary to: increase the de minimis rule and to extend the areas covered by General Block Exemption Regulations (GBER); to provide for more certainty and easer administration of state aid in future. 

The report of the study is available here.