COMMUNICATION TO THE COMMISSION
Endorsement of the content of a draft Commission Regulation declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty, amending Regulations (EU) 2022/2472, (EU) 2022/2473, and (EU) XX/XX [Transport Block Exemption Regulation]
Under Article 108(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”), Member States must notify the Commission of any plans to grant State aid and may not implement such aid until it has been approved by the Commission. The General Block Exemption Regulation (“GBER”) constitutes an exemption to this rule, as it declares certain aid measures compatible with the internal market based on ex ante defined conditions, thereby exempting measures fulfilling these conditions from prior notification to the Commission.
The legal basis of the GBER is Council Regulation (EU) 2015/1588 of 13 July 2015 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to certain categories of horizontal State aid 1 , which specifies the categories of aid that the Commission is empowered to exempt from the notification obligation (‘Enabling Regulation’).
Article 6 of the Enabling Regulation requires the Commission, where it intends to adopt a block-exemption regulation, to publish a draft thereof to allow all interested persons and organisations to submit their comments within a reasonable time limit to be fixed by the Commission and which may not under any circumstances be less than one month.
Pursuant to Article 59 of the GBER, the GBER shall apply until 31 December 2026. The Commission therefore initiated the revision of the GBER before it expires, to ensure a seamless transition to a new GBER.
The objectives of the revision are the following:
·To reduce administrative burden and facilitate the granting of State aid by simplifying the conditions for block-exemption;
·to adapt the conditions for block-exemption to social, market and technology developments as well as relevant policy priorities;
·to streamline the text and structure of the conditions for block-exemption by addressing inconsistencies and improving readability.
The draft Commission Regulation aims at replacing Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty, and at amending Regulations (EU) 2022/2472, (EU) 2022/2473, and (EU) XX/XX [Transport Block Exemption Regulation].
The Commission is called upon to endorse the content of the draft before it is published pursuant to Article 6 of the Enabling Regulation.
The draft Commission Regulation is attached as Annex to this Communication.
The draft will be published on the website of DG Competition: https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/public-consultations_en .
