Which objective(s) does the Commission pursue?

This initiative revises the General Block Exemption Regulation (Regulation 651/2014). It aims at simplifying the application of State aid rules, thus reducing administrative burden and costs and speeding up the implementation of projects in the areas mentioned above. The Commission aims at codifying its existing decision-making practice on airports and ports. This is expected to increase transparency in the handling of cases in these sectors. By adopting straightforward compatibility rules in the GBER, the Commission gives a clear indication of the conditions to be observed in order to provide legal certainty and to be able to implement the measures quickly. In addition, some further clarifications on existing case practice with regard to aid in outermost regions will be provided.

The abolition of the notification requirements and the regulatory codification / clarifications envisaged as part of this initiative should reduce regulatory costs without a significant impact on the amount of State aid granted or on competition in the internal market.

The Commission must however balance the need for simplification for the least distortive cases with closer scrutiny of cases falling outside the GBER.

Estimated savings and benefits

Legal certainty is very important for investment activities: Member States can now make public investments in regional airports handling up to 3 million passengers per year with full legal certainty and without prior control by the Commission. This will facilitate public investment in more than 420 airports across the EU (which account for about 13% of air traffic).

In addition, the Commission estimates that the potential annual regulatory cost-savings that can be achieved by this initiative are up to EUR 27 million for companies and public authorities (in the best-case scenario). This estimate is based on the data available on investments in ports and airports in the past partly financed by EU Funds or by the EIB.

The Commission also expects very substantial administrative cost savings for other investments in ports and airports (i.e. investments that are not at least partly financed by EU Funds or the EIB), which can however not be quantified since no reliable data on the number of such projects exists.

Furthermore, the Commission has taken particular care to ensure a very light administrative burden for situations that pose particularly low risks of competition distortions that affect the internal market. It has therefore included more generous rules and simplified conditions for small airports (below 200 000 passengers per year) and for small investments in seaports (below EUR 5 million of State aid) and in inland ports (below EUR 2 million of State aid). These small airports account for almost half of all airports in the EU but only 0.75% of air traffic and are unlikely to distort competition in the EU Single Market.