STATE AID RULES

Before an Enterprise can receive support from this project they must declare that they meet the criteria of either State de Minimus rules or the State Aid Training Aid or Employment Aid block exemptions.

State Aid Declaration De Minimus

De Minimus is not an option for enterprises in the following four areas:

• In the transport sector;
• Where EU funds are supporting activities linked to the production, processing and marketing of agricultural goods;
• Aid to export related industries; or
• Aid contingent upon the use of domestic over imported goods.

You are being offered assistance under the European Commission's De Minimus regulation (Regulation 69/2001). This allows a company to receive up to 100,000 Euros (approximately £60,000) of aid over a rolling 3 year period.

In order to receive this service you must declare that you have not exceeded the limits of De Minimus aid over the last 36 months.

The following is not a comprehensive list of the possible forms of aid. However, it should give an indication of the most common forms of aid, which you may have been given over the past three years. Potentially any assistance from a public body might be an aid. Should you have any doubts on this matter, please contact the body from which the assistance was received:

• Grants from public bodies
• Loans from public bodies at favourable rates
• Loan guarantees from public bodies
• Differential tax benefits
• Grants from an investment trust (including charities) which may themselves have received the funds from a public body
• Grants from a part publicly funded venture capital trust
• Publically administered funds, even if the funds were originally not public such as the national lottery
• Waiving or deferral of fees or interest normally due to a public bidy such as the waiving or deferral of rent or waiver of interest normally due on late payment of taxation or other costs to a public body
• Monopoly licenses or guarantees of market share
• Advertising via a public channel such as a tourist board or state owned television
• Consultancy advice provided either free or at a reduced rate
• Training provided either free or at a reduced rate (Modern Apprenticeships can be ignored for purposes of State Aid)
• Aid for investment in environmental projects
• Provision of a free or reduced rate feasibility study for research and development or other assistance with research and development
• Purchase of public land or property at a less than market rate
• Benefitting from the provision of infrastructure where your organisation was pre-identified as a beneficiary

These types of aid may have been provided under De Minimus (as De Minimus aid) or under another State Aid regulation. If you are in any doubt whether aid received was De Minimus aid or about its value, check with the organisation which provided it. If they are unable to say or there is any uncertainty, assume that it was De Minimus aid unless its value exceeded £60,000 in which case it cannot have been.

Any De Minimus aid awarded to you under this project will have to be declared if you apply, or have applied, for any other De Minimus aid.

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