The European Commission has approved, in line with EU State Aid Rules, the Greece Regional Aid Charter from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2027 under the revised Regional Aid Guidelines (“CAP”). .
The revised RAG, adopted by the Commission on 19 April 2021 and entered into force on 1 January 2022, allows Member States to support the most disadvantaged European regions to address backwardness and reduce disparities in economic prosperity, income and unemployment – cohesion goals at the heart of the Union. They also provide increased opportunities for Member States to support regions facing transitional or structural challenges, such as population decline, to contribute fully to the green and digital transition.
At the same time, the revised RAGs maintain strong safeguards to prevent Member States from using public money to encourage the relocation of jobs from one EU Member State to another, which is essential for fair competition in the single market.
The regional map of Greece identifies the Greek regions that are eligible for regional investment aid. The map also sets the maximum aid intensities in the eligible regions. The aid intensity is the maximum amount of State aid that can be granted per beneficiary, and is expressed as a percentage of the eligible investment costs.
Under the revised RAG, regions covering 82.34% of the population of Greece will be eligible for regional investment aid:
Twelve regions (North Aegean, South Aegean, Crete, Eastern Macedonia, Thrace, Central Macedonia, Western Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, Ionian Islands, Western Greece, Central Greece and Peloponnese) are among the most disadvantaged. below 75% of the EU average. These areas are eligible for aid under Article 107 (3) (a) TFEU (the so-called “a” areas), with maximum aid intensities for large companies between 30% and 50%, depending on the per capita GDP of the respective region “a”. The area of ​​Evritania, which belongs to Central Greece, is also eligible as a sparsely populated area with less than 12.5 inhabitants per kilometer. In sparsely populated areas, Member States may use operating aid schemes to prevent or reduce population shrinkage.
In order to deal with regional disparities, Greece defined as so-called non-predefined areas “c” the regions Western Sector of Athens, Eastern Attica, Western Attica and Piraeus, Islands. The maximum aid intensities for large companies in the Western Sector area of ​​Athens are 15%. The other “c” regions mentioned above border “a” regions. For this reason, the aid intensity in these regions increased to 25%, with the result that the difference between the aid intensity and the border areas “a” was limited to 15 percentage points.
Greece has the ability to further define so-called non-predefined areas “c” (up to a maximum of 1.16% of the national population). The specific designation of these areas may take place in the future and will lead to one or more amendments to the regional aid map approved today.
In all of the above areas, the maximum aid intensities can be increased by 10 percentage points for investments made by medium-sized enterprises and by 20 percentage points for small-scale investments, for their initial investments with eligible costs of up to EUR 50 million.
Once a future Territorial Fair Transition Plan has been implemented under the Fair Transit Fund Regulation, Greece may notify the Commission of an amendment to the regional aid map adopted today to implement a possible increase in the maximum aid intensity in future areas. Fair Transition, as defined in the revised RAGs for areas “a”.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
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Source From: Capital
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