Withdrawal of the benefit of the block exemption
Where a Member State grants aid that does not fulfil the conditions set out in Chapters I, II and III of this Regulation, the Commission may, after having provided the Member State concerned with the possibility to make its views known, adopt a decision stating that all or some of the future aid measures adopted by the Member State concerned which would otherwise fulfil the requirements of this Regulation, are to be notified to the Commission in accordance with Article 108(3) of the Treaty. The aid to be notified may be limited to certain types, to aid granted in favour of certain beneficiaries or to aid adopted by certain authorities of the Member State concerned.
Reporting
1. Member States shall transmit to the Commission, via the Commission’s electronic notification system, the summary information about each aid measure exempted under this Regulation in the standardised format laid down in Annex II, together with a link providing access to the full text of the aid measure, including any amendments, within 20 working days following its entry into force.
2. Member States shall transmit to the Commission in electronic form an annual report, as referred to in Chapter III of Regulation (EC) No 794/2004, on the application of this Regulation in respect of each whole year or each part of the year during which this Regulation applies.
3. The annual report shall also contain information concerning the following:
(a)
animal diseases or plant pest as referred to in Article 26;
(b)
meteorological information on the type, timing, relative magnitude and location of climatic events which can be assimilated to a natural disaster as referred to in Article 25 or natural disasters in the agricultural sector as referred to in Article 37;
4. Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply in respect of aid granted to EIP Operational Group projects and to community-led local development (‘CLLD’) projects as referred to in Articles 40 and 61.
Evaluation
1. Aid schemes referred to in Article 1(3) shall be subject to an ex post evaluation if they have a State aid budget or accounted expenditures over EUR 150 million in any given year or EUR 750 million over their total duration, that is the combined duration of the scheme and any predecessor scheme covering a similar objective and geographical area, starting from 1 January 2023. Given the objectives of the evaluation, and to avoid putting a disproportionate burden on Member States, ex post evaluations shall only be required for aid schemes the total duration of which exceeds three years, starting from 1 January 2023.
2. The ex post evaluation requirement may be waived for aid schemes that are an immediate successor of a scheme covering a similar objective and geographical area that has been subject to an evaluation, delivered a final evaluation report in compliance with the evaluation plan approved by the Commission and has not generated any negative findings. Where the final evaluation report of a scheme is not in compliance with the approved evaluation plan, that scheme shall be suspended with immediate effect. Any successor of such suspended scheme shall not enjoy the benefit of the block exemption.
3. The aim of the evaluation shall be to verify whether the assumptions and conditions underlying the compatibility of the scheme have been achieved, in particular the necessity and the effectiveness of the aid measure in the light of its general and specific objectives. The evaluation shall also assess the impact of the scheme on competition and trade.
4. For aid schemes subject to the evaluation requirement pursuant to paragraph 1, Member States shall notify a draft evaluation plan as follows:
(a)
within 20 working days from the scheme’s entry into force, if the State aid budget of the scheme exceeds EUR 150 million in any given year or EUR 750 million over its total duration;
(b)
within 30 working days following a significant change that increases the budget of the scheme to over EUR 150 million in any given year or EUR 750 million over the total duration of the scheme;
(c)
within 30 working days following the recording in official accounts of expenditure under the scheme in excess of EUR 150 million in any year.
5. The draft evaluation plan shall be in accordance with the common methodology for State aid evaluation adopted by the Commission. Member States shall publish the evaluation plan approved by the Commission.
6. The ex post evaluation shall be carried out by an expert independent from the aid granting authority on the basis of the evaluation plan. Each evaluation shall include at least one interim and one final evaluation report. Member States shall publish both reports.
7. The final evaluation report shall be submitted to the Commission at the latest nine months before the expiry of the exempted scheme. That period may be reduced for schemes triggering the evaluation requirement in their last two years of implementation. The precise scope and arrangements for each evaluation shall be set out in the decision approving the evaluation plan. The notification of any subsequent aid measure with a similar objective shall describe how the results of the evaluation have been taken into account.
Monitoring
Member States shall maintain detailed records with the information and supporting documentation necessary to establish that all the conditions laid down in this Regulation are fulfilled. Such records shall be kept for 10 years from the date on which the ad hoc aid was granted or the last aid was granted under an aid scheme. The Member State concerned shall provide the Commission, within a period of 20 working days or such longer period as may be fixed in the request, with all the information and supporting documentation, which the Commission considers necessary to monitor the application of this Regulation.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
