Bakgrunn (fra Kommisjonens rapport, engelsk utgave)

The spring 2008 update of the State aid Scoreboard aims to present State aid for environmental protection in the context of the European Union's fight against climate change. It provides an overview of how Member States use the possibilities to grant aid under the environmental aid guidelines and of available expenditure data on environmental aid.

This update of the Scoreboard (*) is divided into five main parts. Part One focuses on State aid for environmental protection. Part Two presents the State aid situation in Bulgaria and Romania in the period prior to their accession. The main aim is to assess their progress towards meeting the Lisbon objectives and response to successive European Councils calls for “less and better targeted aid”. This overview complements the data and analysis provided in the autumn 2007 Scoreboard which covered the same time period for the EU-25 Member States.

Parts Three and Four focus on ongoing efforts to recover unlawful aid and summarise ongoing work to modernise State aid control through legislative and policy means.

Part Five provides an overview of State aid procedures in 2007 including statistics on State aid measures falling under the six block exemption regulations (block exemptions for aid to SME, training aid, employment aid, regional aid, aid to SME in the agricultural sector and certain types of aid in the fisheries sector). It also reports on the progress made by the Commission with regard to shortening the time required to treat State aid notifications.

In addition to this paper edition, a permanent online Scoreboard consisting of a series of key indicators and a range of statistical information for the EU Member States is available on the Competition Directorate General’s Internet site. The autumn 2008 Scoreboard will cover State aid awarded in EU-27 for the year 2007.

(*) The scoreboard does not take into account coordination aid envisaged in Article 73 which may include intended positive effects on the environment.