What changed, Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid…

− **2.** This Regulation shall not apply to:▼M4(a) schemes under Sections 1 (with the exception of Article 15), 2, 3, 4, 7 (with the exception of Article 44) and 10 of Chapter III of this Regulation and aid implemented in the form of financial products under Section 16 of that Chapter, if the average …
− **3.** This Regulation shall not apply to:▼M4(a) aid granted in the fishery and aquaculture sector, as covered by Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2) with the exception of training aid, aid for SMEs’ access to finance, aid in the field of research and devel…
− (13) ‘coal’ means high-grade, medium-grade and low-grade category A and B coal within the meaning of the international codification system for coal established by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and clarified in the Council decision of 10 December 2010 on State aid to facilitate th…
− (18) ‘undertaking in difficulty’ means an undertaking in respect of which at least one of the following circumstances occurs: (a) In the case of a limited liability company (other than an SME that has been in existence for less than three years or, for the purposes of eligibility for risk finance ai…
− (20) ‘adjusted aid amount’ means the maximum permissible aid amount for a large investment project, calculated according to the following formula: maximum aid amount = R × (A + 0,50 × B + 0 × C) where: R is the maximum aid intensity applicable in the area concerned established in an approved regiona…
− (27) ‘assisted areas’ means areas designated in an approved regional aid map approved in application of Articles2020-2021, 107(3)(a) and (c) of the Treaty for the period from 1 July 2014 to 31 December 2021 for regional aid granted until 31 December 2021 and areas designated in an approved regional …
− (32) ‘net increase in the number of employees’ means a net increase in the number of employees in the establishment concerned compared with the average over a given period in time, and that any posts lost during that period must therefore be deducted and that the number of persons employed full-time…
− (34) ‘financial intermediary’ means any financial institution regardless of its form and ownership, including fund-of-funds, private equity investment funds, public investment funds, banks, micro-finance institutions and guarantee societies;
− (39) ‘operating profit’ means the difference between the discounted revenues and the discounted operating costs over the economic lifetime of the investment, where this difference is positive. The operating costs include costs such as personnel costs, materials, contracted services, communications, …
− (40) Definitions applying to aid for broadband infrastructures (Section 10) are applicable to the relevant regional aid provisions.
− (42) ‘regional operating aid’ means aid to reduce an undertaking's current expenditure. This includes cost categories such as personnel costs, materials, contracted services, communications, energy, maintenance, rent, administration, but excludes depreciation charges and the costs of financing if th…
− (43) ‘steel sector’ means all activities related to the production of one or more of the following products: (a) pig iron and ferro-alloys: pig iron for steelmaking, foundry and other pig iron, spiegeleisen and high-carbon ferro-manganese, not including other ferro-alloys; (b) crude and semi-finishe…
− (44) ‘synthetic fibres sector’ means: (a) extrusion/texturisation of all generic types of fibre and yarn based on polyester, polyamide, acrylic or polypropylene, irrespective of their end-uses; or (b) polymerisation (including polycondensation) where it is integrated with extrusion in terms of the m…
− (45) ‘transport sector’ means the transport of passengers by aircraft, maritime transport, road or rail and by inland waterway or freight transport services for hire or reward; more specifically, the ‘transport sector’ means the following activities in terms of NACE Rev. 2: (a) NACE 49: Land transpo…
− (49) ‘initial investment’ means: (a) an investment in tangible and intangible assets related to the setting-up of a new establishment, extension of the capacity of an existing establishment, diversification of the output of an establishment into products not previously produced in the establishment …
− (50) ‘the same or a similar activity’ means an activity falling under the same class (four-digit numerical code) of the NACE Rev. 2 statistical classification of economic activities as laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establi…
− (51) ‘initial investment in favour of new economic activity’ means: (a) an investment in tangible and intangible assets related to the setting up of a new establishment, or to the diversification of the activity of an establishment, under the condition that the new activity is not the same or a simi…
− (72) ‘independent private investor’ means a private investor who is not a shareholder of the eligible undertaking in which it invests, including business angels and financial institutions, irrespective of their ownership, to the extent that they bear the full risk in respect of their investment. Upo…
− (73) ‘natural person’ for the purpose of Articles 21 and 23 means a person other than a legal entity who is not an undertaking for the purposes of Article 107(1) of the Treaty;
− (79) ‘entrusted entity’ means the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund, an international financial institution in which a Member State is a shareholder, or a financial institution established in a Member State aiming at the achievement of public interest under the control of a p…
− (80) ‘innovative enterprise’ means an enterprise: (a) that can demonstrate, by means of an evaluation carried out by an external expert that it will in the foreseeable future develop products, services or processes which are new or substantially improved compared to the state of the art in its indus…
− (81) ‘alternative trading platform’ means a multilateral trading facility as defined in Article 4(1)(15) of Directive 2004/39/EC where the majority of the financial instruments admitted to trading are issued by SMEs;
− (85) ‘industrial research’ means the planned research or critical investigation aimed at the acquisition of new knowledge and skills for developing new products, processes or services or for bringing about a significant improvement in existing products, processes or services. It comprises the creati…
− (86) ‘experimental development’ means acquiring, combining, shaping and using existing scientific, technological, business and other relevant knowledge and skills with the aim of developing new or improved products, processes or services. This may also include, for example, activities aiming at the …
− (89) ‘arm's length’ means that the conditions of the transaction between the contracting parties do not differ from those which would be stipulated between independent enterprises and contain no element of collusion. Any transaction that results from an open, transparent and non-discriminatory proce…
− (90) ‘effective collaboration’ means collaboration between at least two independent parties to exchange knowledge or technology, or to achieve a common objective based on the division of labour where the parties jointly define the scope of the collaborative project, contribute to its implementation …
− (91) ‘research infrastructure’ means facilities, resources and related services that are used by the scientific community to conduct research in their respective fields and covers scientific equipment or sets of instruments, knowledge-based resources such as collections, archives or structured scien…
− (92) ‘innovation clusters’ means structures or organised groups of independent parties (such as innovative start-ups, small, medium and large enterprises, as well as research and knowledge dissemination organisations, non-for-profit organisations and other related economic actors) designed to stimul…
− (94) ‘innovation advisory services’ means consultancy, assistance and training in the fields of knowledge transfer, acquisition, protection and exploitation of intangible assets, use of standards and regulations embedding them;
− (95) ‘innovation support services’ means the provision of office space, data banks, libraries, market research, laboratories, quality labelling, testing and certification for the purpose of developing more effective products, processes or services;
+ **2.** This Regulation shall not apply to:▼M6(a) schemes under Sections 1 (with the exception of Article 15), 2 (with the exception of Articles 19c and 19d), 3, 4, 7 (with the exception of Article 44) and 10 of Chapter III of this Regulation, if the average annual State aid budget per Member State e…
+ **3.** This Regulation shall not apply to:▼M6(a) aid granted in the fishery and aquaculture sector, within the scope of Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2) with the exception of:— training aid;— aid for SMEs’ access to finance;— aid in the field of research…
+ **6.** Chapter III, Section 7, of this Regulation shall not apply to State aid measures for production of nuclear energy.
+ (13) ‘coal’ means high-grade, medium-grade and low-grade category A and B coal within the meaning of the international codification system for coal established by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and clarified in the Council decision of 10 December 2010 on State aid to facilitate th…
+ (18) ‘undertaking in difficulty’ means an undertaking in respect of which at least one of the following circumstances occurs: (a) In the case of a limited liability company (other than an SME that has been in existence for less than 3 years or, for the purposes of eligibility for risk finance aid, a…
+ (20) ‘adjusted aid amount’ means the maximum permissible aid amount for a large investment project, calculated in accordance with the following formula: adjusted aid amount = R × (A + 0.50 × B + 0 × C) where: R is the maximum aid intensity applicable in the area concerned, excluding the increased ai…
+ (27) ‘assisted areas’ means areas designated in a regional aid map that has been approved in application of Article 107(3), points (a) and (c) of the Treaty and is in force at the time of the award of the aid;
+ (32) ‘net increase in the number of employees’ means a net increase in the number of employees in the establishment concerned compared to the average over a given period in time, after deducting from the number of jobs created any job losses during that period. The number of persons employed full-ti…
+ (34) ‘financial intermediary’ means any financial institution regardless of its form and ownership, including funds of funds, private investment funds, public investment funds, banks, micro-finance institutions and guarantee societies;
+ (39) ‘operating profit’ means the difference between the discounted revenues and the discounted operating costs over the economic lifetime of the investment, where this difference is positive. The operating costs include costs such as personnel costs, materials, contracted services, communications, …
+ (39a) ‘arm's length’ means that the conditions of the transaction between the contracting parties do not differ from those which would be stipulated between independent undertakings and contain no element of collusion. Any transaction that results from an open, transparent and non-discriminatory pro…
+ (39b) ‘written’ means any form of written document, including electronic documents, provided that such electronic documents are recognised as equivalent under the applicable administrative procedures and legislation in the Member State concerned.
+ (42) ‘regional operating aid’ means aid to reduce an undertaking's current expenditure, including categories such as personnel costs, materials, contracted services, communications, energy, maintenance, rent, administration, but excluding depreciation charges and the costs of financing related to an…
+ (43) ‘steel sector’ means the production of one or more of the following: (a) pig iron and ferro-alloys: pig iron for steelmaking, foundry and other pig iron, spiegeleisen and high-carbon ferro-manganese, not including other ferro-alloys; (b) crude and semi-finished products of iron, ordinary steel …
+ (43a) ‘lignite’ means low-rank C or ortho-lignite and low-rank B or meta-lignite as defined by the international codification system for coal established by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe;
+ (45) ‘transport sector’ means the transport of passengers by aircraft, maritime transport, road or rail and by inland waterway or freight transport services for hire or reward; more specifically, the ‘transport sector’ means the following activities in terms of the statistical classification of econ…
+ (47a) ‘completion of the investment’ means the moment when the investment is considered by the national authorities as completed or, in the absence thereof, 3 years after the start of works;
+ (49) ‘initial investment’ means one of the following: (a) an investment in tangible and intangible assets related to one or more of the following: — the setting-up of a new establishment; — the extension of the capacity of an existing establishment; — the diversification of the output of an establis…
+ (50) ‘same or a similar activity’ means an activity in the same class (four-digit numerical code) of the NACE Rev. 2 statistical classification of economic activities (NACE Rev. 2);
+ (51) ‘initial investment that creates a new economic activity’ means: (a) an investment in tangible and intangible assets related to one or both of the following: — the setting up of a new establishment; — the diversification of the activity of an establishment, provided that the new activity is not…
+ (72) ‘independent private investor’ means an investor who is private and independent, as defined in this point. ‘Private’ investors mean investors who, irrespective of their ownership structure, pursue a purely commercial interest, use their own resources and bear the full risk in respect of their i…
+ (73) ‘natural person’ for the purpose of Articles 21a and 23 means a person other than a legal entity and who is not an undertaking for the purposes of Article 107(1) of the Treaty;
+ (79) ‘entrusted entity’ means the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund, an international financial institution in which a Member State is a shareholder, or a legal entity that carries out financial activities on a professional basis which has been given mandate by a Member State…
+ (80) ‘innovative enterprise’ means an enterprise that meets one of the following conditions: (a) it can demonstrate, by means of an evaluation carried out by an external expert, that it will in the foreseeable future develop products, services or processes which are new or substantially improved com…
+ (81) ‘alternative trading platform’ means a multilateral trading facility as defined in Article 4(1), point (22) of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (17) where at least 50 % of the financial instruments admitted to trading are issued by SMEs;
+ (85) ‘industrial research’ means the planned research or critical investigation aimed at the acquisition of new knowledge and skills for developing new products, processes or services or aimed at bringing about a significant improvement in existing products, processes or services, including digital …
+ (86) ‘experimental development’ means acquiring, combining, shaping and using existing scientific, technological, business and other relevant knowledge and skills with the aim of developing new or improved products, processes or services, including digital products, processes or services, in any are…
+ (90) ‘effective collaboration’ means collaboration between at least two independent parties to exchange knowledge or technology, or to achieve a common objective based on the division of labour where the parties jointly define the scope of the collaborative project, contribute to its implementation …
+ (90a) ‘Non-defence applications’ for the purposes of Article 25e refers to applications in products other than defence-related products listed in the Annex to Directive 2009/43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (18);
+ (91) ‘research infrastructure’ means facilities, resources and related services that are used by the scientific community to conduct research in their respective fields and covers scientific equipment or sets of instruments, knowledge-based resources such as collections, archives or structured scien…