The European Commission is introducing “additional flexibility” to ease liquidity difficulties for companies.
It was a request from all the Member States. Faced with the shock caused by the war in Ukraine on European businesses and the specter of a recession hanging over the European economy, the European Commission has decided to make the temporary State aid framework launched in March more generous and flexible. 2022.
It is the second time that the EU’s competition watchdog has relaxed emergency rules, which have now been extended until the end of 2023. If Germany, under fire for its 200 billion euros aimed at relieving companies and households from soaring energy prices, will be one of the major beneficiaries of the new rules, it is all of the Twenty-Seven who will benefit from them.
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The changes to the framework also introduce a “additional flexibility” to alleviate the liquidity difficulties of companies in the energy sector, for which supply costs have exploded. They will now be able to benefit from public state guarantees with coverage of up to 90%. This will have to be done “in exceptional cases and subject to strict safeguards”, says Margaret Vestager, the vice-president of the executive. The goal is to “avoid any overcompensation”.
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As for the ceilings for direct aid to businesses, they have almost quadrupled. The ceiling for state aid for companies in the agricultural sector is increased from 62,000 euros to 250,000 euros. That of the fishing and aquaculture sectors is raised from 75,000 to 300,000 euros. The rest of the companies will be able to obtain up to 2 million euros in state aid per year, four times more than currently. For the energy-intensive, this could go up to 100 to 150 million according to calculations based on “past or current consumption”, but must be accompanied by efforts to reduce the carbon footprint.