The European Commission has launched a consultation on a draft revision of the de minimis regulation.
Under the current rules, Member States can grant support of up to €200,000 per beneficiary over a period of three years (‘de minimis threshold’) without prior notification to the Commission for approval.
This amount is deemed to have no impact on competition and trade in the EU single market and is therefore not considered to be State aid. These rules are due to expire on 31st December 2023. The revision aims at increasing the ceilings in order to take into account the past (since 2014) and future (until 2030, for the next regulation) inflation. The revision would also introduce a mandatory public register (at national or EU level) setting out the beneficiaries and the amounts of aid granted under this regulation in order to meet the transparency requirements.
The draft submitted to the public consultation increases the ceilings by 37,5% (from 200 000 to 275 000, and from 100 000 to 137 500). In its reply to the last ISC, GROW requested for doubling the ceilings in order to better cover the inflation, until 2030, and to take into account economic developments linked notably to the COVID and the Ukrainian crisis and to the twin transition. Likewise GROW questioned the lower ceiling for the freight road transport and asked for evidenced justification. The draft also includes provisions relating to the mandatory public register, and GROW supported them.
Malta Enterprise is encouraging the industry and stakeholders to participate in this consultation: 2022 de minimis (europa.eu) Deadline is until 10 January, 2023.