Every private company involved in joining EU programmes (projects implementation consortia) will sooner or later certainly have to deal with the so-called de minimis regulation. In a few words, the money you get as a consortia member are supposed to be sort of state aid which will eventualy lead to distortive effects on competition. EU Public Authorities are allowed to grant economic aid to private companies only within a fixed treshold expressly authorized by the European Commission. If an SME is involved into a project developed under a EU cofinanced program, and would like to have its activity rewarded, it has to deal with state aid legal framework.
In order to facilitate SME’s participation an exception has been added anyway: there is a class of aid for which notification from EU member states to European Commission is not needed; these are aid of minor importance, as defined by the EU de minimis, which are not presumed to affect competition significantly.
Here is a short summary if you’d rather be working than having a Master’s Degree on euro-intricacy:
- EC Regulation no. 1998/2006 was meant to simplify the operational/legal framework on state-aid. It stated that, below a certain threshold, an aid could be granted to enterprises without the need for the provider to notify it to the European Commission (notification otherwise required). The threshold of aid has then been set to € 200.000 (€ 100.000 for road transport activities) over a period of three fiscal years (present financial year and the two previous ones). Now Public authorities can then grant aid to businesses of any size, under the de minimis rule, without notice.
Hint: aid of no more than € 200.000 granted over a period of three years is not regarded as State aid.
Please note that these kind of aid are, by the way, cumulative. It means that if the same company wants to participate in several projects under the same or different EU programmes the treshold it’s collective. 1 project -> € 200.000 treshold. 6 projects -> always € 200.000 treshold.
- April 2009 Communication from the commission – Temporary Community framework for State aid measures to support access to finance in the current financial and economic crisis (2009/C 83/01) stated that, especially due to the huge economic crisis, smaller amount aid, which “technically” are not de minimis, “can be combined with aid under de minimis regulation, but the cumulation of the two shall not exceed the threshold of € 500,000 in the period. The Communication states, indeed, that “… the sum of the amount of aid received under the measures referred to in paragraph 4.2 of [that] communication and de minimis aid received does not exceed € 500.000 between January, 1 2008 and December 31, 2010.
Hint: if you are dealing with EU co-financed programs which refer to the de minimis regulation please continue to apply de minimis threshold of € 200.000 (€ 100.000 for road transport) and the provisions of Regulation no. 1998/2006, except as provided by other Regulations for specific sectors (production of agricultural products and fisheries). For the combination of these aid with aid for limited view above.
So, let me tell you that if you are thinking to start a project or be part of a consortium involved in a project designed for specific EU Programmes as:
- ENPI programme
- cooperation programmes (InterReg, Alpine Space, Alcotra, Marittimo, Med and other)
- Regional programmes directly managing EU funds like RDEF (in Italy they are the so called POR)
you will probably have to deal with de minimis regime.
The good news is that de minimis should not by appliable to research projects. Then, green light for, in example, 7th Framework Program.
Stay tuned for more info…