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Overall state aid expenditures EU-wide in 2023 dropped to €186.78 billion from €243.27 billion in 2022. The member states channeled 73% of funds towards such policy objectives as environmental protection and energy savings, research, circular development, innovation and regional development; in 2022, this share was 49%. However, the total amount of aid spent on these key objectives increased to €136.78 billion from €119.98 billion.
Legal background
Under Article 6 of Commission Regulation (EC) 794/2004, the European Commission must publish annually a state aid synopsis (“State aid Scoreboard” or “Scoreboard”) based on the expenditure reports provided by the EU member states.
The scoreboard is the European Commission’s benchmarking instrument used for analysing the member states’ financial resources for development. It was launched in July 2001 to provide a transparent and publicly accessible source of information on the overall State aid situation in the EU states and on the Commission’s State aid control activities.
Unless differently specified, State aid expenditures are presented in terms of aid element granted by the member state’s authorities to the recipient of the aid. The aid element does not represent the nominal amount granted by the public authority, but measures the economic advantage passed on to the undertaking. For example, the COVID-19 related measures and measures to address the negative consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as fostering the transition towards a net zero economy, state aid expenditures are presented both in terms of nominal amount and in terms of aid element.
More in: https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/state-aid/scoreboard_en
Special focus points
This 2024 edition of the State aid Scoreboard includes six special focus points: – measures supporting the economy in mitigating the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine; – fostering transition to a new-zero economy; – aid provided in the context of the post-coronavirus crisis; – block-exempted State aid expenditure; – aid for energy and environmental protection, renewables and energy savings; – deployment of broadband networks; – industrial innovation and clean tech manufacturing. To have a better overview of the aid actually granted under the two crisis frameworks, the Commission conducted periodic surveys to seek information from the EU member states.
The State aid Scoreboard for 2023 shows the following particular directions:
= The EU states reported approximately €186.78 billion in total State aid expenditure. This corresponds to 1.09% of the 2023 EU GDP and represents a 23% reduction compared to 2022, when overall expenditure was €243.27 billion. Member States have focused on supporting companies in reaching key long-term EU priorities and strongly reduced crisis aid granted in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. EU-27 states spent a total of €136.78 billion on State aid for key EU priorities, or 0.8% of EU GDP. This corresponds to a 14% increase compared to 2022, when the expenditure for these measures was €119.98 billion.
= Environmental protection and energy savings are the policy objectives on which the member states spent by far the most in 2023 (€55.32 billion, accounting for around 30% of overall State aid expenditure). Remedying a serious disturbance in the economy was the second policy objective, accounting for around 25% of overall EU State aid expenditure.
= Measures approved under the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework to counterbalance the negative effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine on the economy and to foster the transition towards a net-zero economy accounted for €39.45 billion (21% of State aid spending and 0.23% of EU GDP).
= The reduction in 2023 State aid expenditure was driven by the phase-out of the measures adopted to mitigate the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2023, this type of aid expenditure dropped to 0.06% of EU GDP. The expenditure was only a relatively small part of the budget of crisis measures approved: 34% for COVID-19 support and 19% for all TCTF measures.
= The share of block-exempted measures keeps rising. Thus, the member states implemented 2,105 new measures under the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), 690 under the Agricultural Block Exemption Regulation (ABER) and 30 under the Fishery Block Exemption Regulation (FIBE) in 2023. These measures correspond altogether to 88% of the total number of new State aid measures and 93% of all the new State aid measures excluding crisis aid. The total amount of State aid spent under the block exemptions was €70.53 billion (around 38% of the total expenditure in 2023).
More Information in the annexes of the State aid Scoreboard-2024 with additional illustrative material; state aid expenditure data gathered by DG Competition is also available on its data repository webpage on the Competition website.
More in competition website: https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/index_en