VADEMECUM COMMUNITY RULES ON STATE AID - Interact

Special conditions
The Framework provides for three types of assessment on the basis of a balancing test of the
positive and negative effects of the aid:
(i) standard assessment – if project satisfies conditions set out in Chapter 5 of the Framework,
it is assumed that the balancing test would be positive. The following measures fall within this
category (provided aid is granted only upon application to national authorities):
• project aid and feasibility studies if aid beneficiary is SME and aid amount is below
EUR 7,5 million per SME for a project;
• aid for industrial property rights costs for SMEs;
• aid for young innovative enterprises;
• aid for innovation advisory services;
• aid for innovation support services; and
• aid for the loan of highly qualified personnel.
(ii) standard assessment plus demonstration of incentive effect and necessity- in accordance
with Chapters 5 and 6 of the Framework: for all notified aid falling below the thresholds for
the detailed assessment (mentioned below) and not falling within one of the categories of the
standard assessment just under Chapter 5 (mentioned above).
(iii) detailed assessment – due to a higher risk of distortion of competition, Commission will
carry out a detailed assessment for measures where the amount exceeds:
> for project aid and feasibility studies:
• if project is predominantly fundamental research, EUR 20 million;
• if the project is predominantly industrial research, EUR 10 million;
• for all other projects: EUR 7,5 million;
> for process or organisational innovation in services activities, EUR 5 million.
> for innovation clusters, EUR 5 million.
For each aid scheme, an annual report on implementation is required.
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