Introduction State Aid Conference Structural Funds R&D&I Update Environmental Aid Consultation Responses Coming Soon

to the Winter 2007 edition of the State Aid Newsletter.

In this issue we provide a review of recent developments in the world of State aid, including UK draft responses to Commission consultations, the latest draft environmental aid guidelines and extended Scottish approval for aid provision under the European Commission Research and Development and Innovation Framework.

We also look at Structural Funds and State aid and a review of our State Aid Conference for Scottish Local Authorities held in Glasgow in October.

As always, we look forward to any comments you may have on the content of both this newsletter and the Scottish Government State aid website.

The State aid conference for Scottish Local Authorities held in Glasgow on 2 October 2007 was the first
of its kind in Scotland.  

We were delighted to have Melissa Perry, UKRep and Trevor Raggatt, BERR
State Aid Unit as speakers and during the day, delegates learned more about
State aid and its relevance to Scottish Local Authorities, State Aid Reform and
the role of UK Representation in Brussels. Presentations were well received
and found to be 'helpful', 'interesting' and 'informative'.  

    The presentations and guidelines issued at the conference have now  been 
    published on the State aid website.  We hope to follow up the success of 
    the conference with more specific presentations or workshops so if there 
    are any specific topics you would like to see covered, please let us know.  

The State Aid Unit has recently published a guide to assist those dealing with Structural Funds projects and responsible for undertaking State aid assessments of these projects.

Public monies involved in Structural Funds projects - both the public
match funding and the Structural Funds themselves - may constitute
State aid. Public authorities involved with Structural Funds projects
should therefore consider the status of each individual award to be
made and ensure, where it constitutes State aid, that it is awarded
in compliance with the EC's State aid rules. 

The Unit's guide takes public authorities through the individual steps
required to make a State aid analysis and provides advice on what to
do where funding constitutes State aid.  The guide will also be available
on our website and is intended as a working document to be added to
by the Unit as the Structural Funds programmes progress. 

The State Aid Unit is also working on an ongoing basis with Structural
Funds colleagues in the Managing Authority (Scottish Government) to ensure
that Scottish public authorities have  appropriate State aid cover to deliver Programme objectives compliantly. 

We are pleased to announce that Scotland, in the form of the Scottish Government, Scottish
Enterprise, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, now has EC approval to award grants for R&D&I,
  in compliance with the  EC's 2007+ Framework for State
  aid for Research and Development and Innovation, until the
  end of 2008. 

  The EC published this approval on its website on 15th
  November, ensuring that Scotland has cover in the medium
  term in respect of awarding R&D&I project aid. The Scottish
  Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands
  Enterprise met in mid November to discuss what further cover,
if any, they anticipate needing under the  2007+ Framework - which potentially offers Member States the
scope to award aid for a further range of company R&D&I activities, such as aid to young, innovative,
small enterprises and to SMEs for the loan of highly qualified personnel.

In October the Commission published a second consultation on the draft community guidelines for State aid for Environmental Protection.

As a Member State the UK was disappointed that the Commission had not 
reflected the UK’s proposals and in fact apart from an increase in some aid 
intensities, not much had changed from the previous consultation. 

The UK response to these guidelines is now available on our website.

To keep pace with current developments and ensure our stakeholders are aware of the very latest in Commission thinking, the State Aid Unit have published details of Scottish involvement in the various consultations driven forward by the European Commission State aid reform agenda.

    Lately, these have included Commission consultations on Guarantees, the
    General Block Exemption Regulation and proposals for the Rescue and Restructuring 
    Guidelines. For details of the latest developments in the State Aid Reform process,
    check our dedicated website page.

Further developments in the future :-

• Final version of Environmental Aid Guidelines in second half of January. The Commission will extend the current ones until then, as they are due to expire on 31.12.07;
  
  
• General Block Exemption Regulation - new draft expected in next few months, with a further
  Multilateral of all Member States in march 2008 leading to the final GBER in May/June 2008;
  
  
• Review of Rescue and Restructuring guidelines - the current questionnaire is seen as an important way of getting Member States’ views. A first draft of new guidelines will be issued mid 2008 for adoption by 2009;
  
  
• Aid for Public Broadcasting - questionnaire will be issued to all Member States in December 2007;
  
  
• Aid to Cinemas and Direct Business Taxation are also being considered by the Commission for possible amendment;
  
  
• New implementing regulations and information on Reference Rates will be introduced shortly;
  
  
• State Aid Scoreboard - next issue will be published in mid December