Brussels has approved rules for state aid provisioning

During the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) revision process, the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic has been trying to point out that the EU proposal includes a series of risks for the future state aid provision systems. The European Commission has approved a revised GBER on Wednesday 21^st May, taking into account the standpoints of the Confederation.

„As a main risk in the whole system, the Confederation of Industry saw the prepared limit for investing schemes. If it would be exceeded, a complicated official notification of the state aid provision system would be necessary,“ the Confederation’s analyst Bohuslav Čížek said.

„After several months of our pointing out the problem, the final proposal has abolished the limit set at 0,01 percent of GDP that would discriminate the lesser developed countries, whereas the limit in its absolute value has been slightly increased (from 100 to 150 million euros). Although the Commission has not accepted all our suggestions, the final version brought up a lot of partial positive results.“

Important is also the decision to increase the limit vis-à-vis  the duty to publish on-line information concerning the individual aid (from 200 thousand to 500 thousand euros), Čížek stressed.

The GBER represents a key element in the system for the provision of state aid as a tool of economic policy, which has as its goal the achievement of the strategic objectives of the European Union and its Member States.