The European Commission is inviting Member States and other stakeholders to comment on its proposal to exempt from prior Commission scrutiny under EU State aid rules aid granted through national funds for projects supported under certain EU centrally managed programmes, like “Seals of excellence”.
This would result in a targeted review of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), in order to extend its application, under a limited set of conditions, to national funds involved in the following three areas:
- Financing and investment operations supported by the InvestEU Fund;
- Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) projects having received a “Seal of Excellence” under Horizon Europe, as well as projects under the future Co-fund programme;
- European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) projects, known as Interreg Policy.
This proposal would apply to the next Multiannual Financial Framework.
Stakeholders are invited to submit comments on by 27 September 2019.
