De minimis aid

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The de minimis aid scheme makes aid that an EU member state grants a company and the amount of which is to be regarded as insignificant - under certain conditions - does not require further approval by the European Commission ("minor aid ").

Basics

The Latin term de minimis means something like “small things” or “things of little importance”, which no constitutional state takes into account. This is intended to reinforce the intent of the aid as a minor subsidy. However, the total amount of all de minimis grants received by a company may be subject to a limit.

Aid or subsidies from an EU member state to a company must be approved by the European Commission if they can distort competition. As a de minimis rule for State aid apply aid awarded by a Member State to a company and the amount of which is to be regarded as minor, because it is thus suspected (rebuttable) that a restriction of competition does not take place. Consequently, they are exempt from the application of the competition rules. De minimis aid does not require approval due to its volume, but can be monitored by the Commission.

The prerequisites and conditions are regulated in the de minimis regulation . Until 2013, this was the EU Commission Regulation No. 1998/2006 of December 15, 2006 on the application of Art. 87 and Art. 88 of the EC Treaty . It limited the general de minimis threshold to 200,000 euros (for companies in the road transport sector the maximum was 100,000 euros, for companies in the fishing sector 30,000 euros and for companies in the agricultural sector 7,500 euros) over a period of three tax years and set a guarantee-specific upper limit Seven and a half times these amounts. Before that, Regulation 69/2001 of January 12, 2001 applied temporarily until the end of June 2007; this generally limited the total to 100,000 euros. As of January 1, 2014, EU Regulation No. 1407/2013 of December 18, 2013, which was issued on the basis of Articles 107 and 108 TFEU , applies (for agricultural aid, EU Regulation 1408/2013 was also issued ). The previously applicable rules have been adopted except for one far-reaching change: According to Art. 2 Para. 2 d of EU Regulation 1407/2013, affiliated companies within an EU country are now considered to be "a single company" (cf. also Recital 4 in this VO). The threshold of 200,000 euros (100,000 euros for road haulage companies; VO 1408/2013: agricultural companies but 15,000 euros) was retained. Ordinances 1407/2013 and 1408/2013 apply until December 31, 2020.

There is an extended upper limit for so-called activities of general economic interest ("SGEI"), for which an aid of up to max. € 500,000 is permitted without approval, i.e. without notification ( Regulation (EU) No. 360/2012 ).

Since the regulation applies across the EU, three local tax years are set for each country. In Germany these are calendar years (January 1 to December 31), in other countries the years may be differentiated.

Federal investment grants

The federal government's investment grants, the de minimis grants, can be applied for again for each funding year. However, they cannot be used multiple times for individual projects. The de minimis aid is a subsidy from an EU member state to a company. These grants are tied to compliance with certain conditions. The amount is generally limited to around EUR 200,000 and for companies in the road transport sector to EUR 100,000 within three tax years. This maximum amount is the same for all “de minimis” aid, regardless of the type and objective of the aid.

Aid for start-ups

These funds approved by Brussels are of great interest, especially for start-ups. After all, they have the option of receiving up to 200,000 euros in funding within the first three tax years. Among other things, these funds can be used for consulting costs, such as consulting for the Central Innovation Program for SMEs . De minimis aid can also be combined with other funding measures, but then they must be approved by the European Commission. In return, the beneficiary company must undertake to submit a complete and complete overview of all de minimis aid received in the current tax year and also in the two previous tax years. De minimis certificates must be kept for ten years and must be able to be presented at the request of the federal government, state administration or licensing bodies within 20 working days or a specified longer period. If funding recipients fail to comply with this obligation, it may happen that the approval requirements and the subsidy, plus possible interest, are reclaimed retrospectively. Applying for funding is often complicated and tied to various conditions.

De minimis in antitrust law

Accordingly, a restraint of competition is only assumed once the parties involved have achieved a certain market share. This corresponds to 10% for companies at the same value chain and 15% for companies at upstream or downstream value chain. This exception does not apply to very frowned upon agreements ( core restrictions , see Art. 81 (1) EC).

De minimis in the transport industry (Germany)

A special promotion according to the de minimis principle is the promotion of special measures in the transport industry from the toll revenues . Since 2009, part of the income (approx. 600 million euros) has been paid to companies in the transport industry when they take measures to increase safety or to protect the environment. Companies that carry out road haulage within the meaning of § 1 GüKG and are the keeper or owner of at least one heavy commercial vehicle (motor vehicle with a permissible total weight of at least 7.5 t, which is used exclusively for road haulage) are eligible for funding . In the 2016 funding period, € 2,000 in funding will be granted for each vehicle eligible for funding; the maximum funding per company is limited to € 33,000.

Eligible are e.g. B .:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Babylon - translation of the Latin term
  2. ↑ Jan Kuhnert, Olof Leps: European law requirements for a new non-profit housing . In: New non-profit housing . Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-17569-6 , p. 213-258 , p. 220 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-658-17570-2_8 .
  3. ↑ http://www.bafa.de/bafa/de/energie/kaelteanlagen/
  4. ↑ Information from the Federal Office for Goods Transport on the de minimis funding period 2016 ( memento of the original from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on November 6, 2016 at www.bag.bund.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bag.bund.de
  5. ↑ "De minimis" funding program Information on the 2016 funding period ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Federal Ministry for Goods Transport, no year. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bag.bund.de