Guidelines on state aid ready for adoption

Publication date: 25 February 2009

Guidelines on state aid ready for adoption

The European Commission is expected to adopt a communication, on 25 February, prepared by Commissioners Günter Verheugen (enterprise and industry) and
Neelie Kroes (competition) on the state of the automobile sector in this time of financial crisis. The communication will then be presented to member states during the Competitiveness Council, on 5 March.

According to a spokesperson for the Commission, it will provide details of the instruments made available to member states to help the struggling sector (flexibility on state aid, credit facilities form the European Investment Bank) and will set out a Community framework for measures that member states may potentially introduce in the future.The question of premiums offered when buying a new vehicle will undoubtedly be included, although that does not necessarily mean that citizens in all member states should expect to receive the same amounts.

In fact, Commissioner Verheugen, speaking before the European Parliament at the beginning of February, had explicitly excluded a plan to either harmonise premiums or make the principle obligatory.He had, however, specified that he saw no reason to prevent these premiums been linked to cars with ‘green’ credentials (limited CO2 emissions, for example). This principle is expected to be mentioned in the communication. But those hoping for a state aid plan in the lines of that offered in the United States are likely to be disappointed. The principle was rejected by Commission President José Manuel Barroso’s spokesperson several days ago. The EIB, however, recently announced that it may increase the sums attributed to the automobile sector for the development of‘clean green’ technology.

Source: Europolitics