Proposed new of the EU commission in order to change the norms on the aids of States to the ports and the airports



The EU commission has invited today the interested parts to introduce within next 8 December observations on the proposed new of review of the criteria in order to authorize the concession of aids of State to the ports and to the airports without these determine distortions of the competition or other problems and meanwhile can promote the creation of places of work and the increase. For stakeholder the draft to estimate the new proposed formulated from the EU commission after the comments received from March to the May slid about the intention to extend the field of application of the general regulations of exemption for category of 2014 to the ports and the airports ( on 7 March 2016). The objective of the Commission is to adopt the final regulations in the course first trimester of the next year.

Margrethe Vestager, European commissioner to the Competition, has announced that the Commission has already received "a precious contribution for the definition of rules that guarantee that the investments publics can be distributed in the short possible time without distortions of the competition in the market only This - has emphasized - are important for the ports and the airports, that they carry out a central role for the economic increase and the regional development".

The EU commission has remembered that the general regulations of exemption for category of 2014 have allowed with the Member States to put into effect an immense range of measures of aid of State that have not been subject to the pre-emptive approval of the Commission as it is improbable that they can forge the competition. This has done so as that 90% of all the measures of aid of State, for a annual total expense pairs to beyond 33 billion euros, are implemented by the Member States on the base of this regulations and that the number total of the measures of aid of State notified by Been about to the approval is come down of two third party, from 578 in 2013 to 332 in 2014 and to 192 in 2015.

The Commission has specified that, as a result of the first consultation turns to widen the field of application of the regulations to the ports and the airports, it has included ulterior simplifications for little ones investments in the ports, that is for inferior amounts to five million euro for the marine or inferior ports to two million euro for the internal ports.

Moreover Brussels has explained that the review of the proposal has lead to a greater flexibility regarding the duration of the concessions in the ports, having allowed the necessary time so that the concessionary one you recover own investments. In the specific one, relatively to the aids to the investments in favor of the marine ports and to the internal ports, the project of modification of the regulations EU n. 651/2014 preview that "any concession, or other action of bestowal, in favor of a third party for the construction, the modernization, the management or the lease of a subsidized harbour infrastructure is assigned in competitive way, transparent, not discriminatory and unconditioned. The duration of the eventual concession or other action of bestowal in favor of a third party for the lease or the management of the subsidized harbour infrastructure does not exceed the time that reasonably is necessary to it in order to recover the investments carried out for the management of the works and the services, with a yield of the invested capital that it holds account of the demanded investments in order to achieve the specific contractual objectives".

The Commission has widened also the field of application of the dispositions to the airports many little ones, that they are authorized to receive aids to the investments on the base of more flexible criteria in when the support to these airports is less probable that can cause distortions of the competition. In particular, the proposed new of the Commission regards the measures of support to fleeting airports that enliven a annual traffic until 150 thousand the year, while the proposed precedence previewed the maximum traffic of 50 thousand fleeting. Moreover it is proposed to facilitate the investments for example publics in these little ones airports becoming simpler ulteriorly the criteria that must be respected, regarding the maximum amount of the aid of State that can be granted.

The Commission previews also to tackle to some technical problems found in the application of the general regulations to the aim to facilitate its spread ulteriorly. In particular, the proposal has the objective to simplify the procedures with which the public authorities they are authorized to indemnify the companies for the additional costs that must support as they operate in the ultraperipheral regions of the European Union, so that the support measures can mainly hold account of the challenges and the specificities faced from these companies.