Policy field
Competition: State aid
Target group
All citizens, organisations, companies, and public authorities are welcome to contribute to this consultation.
Contributions are particularly sought from authorities dealing with regional state aid.
Period of consultation
From 23.07.2020 to 30.09.2020
Objective of the consultation
In the Regional aid guidelines, the Commission sets out the conditions under which regional aid may be considered to be compatible with the internal market and establishes the criteria for identifying the areas that fulfil the conditions of Article 107(3)(a) and (c) of the Treaty. The current regional aid guidelines expire on 31.12.2021. (The regional aid guidelines 2014-2020 have been extended until 31 December 2021 by Commission communication C(2020) 4355 final of 2.7.2020.
In 2019, the Commission launched an evaluation of the regional aid framework in the context of the Fitness Check of the 2012 State aid modernisation package to assess if the regional aid guidelines were still fit for purpose. The preliminary results showed that the rules worked in principle well, but require some improvements to reflect economic developments. Based on these evaluation results, the guidelines were revised, also taking new policy objectives into account.
Objective of this consultation is to gather stakeholder views on the draft regional aid guidelines.
How to submit your contribution
We welcome contributions from citizens, organisations and public authorities.
- If you are answering this consultation as a citizen, please click COMP-RAG-REVIEW
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (here) to submit your contribution. - If you are answering this consultation on behalf of an organisation, please click COMP-RAG-REVIEWec [dot] europa [dot] eu (here) to submit your contribution.
- If you are answering this consultation as a company, please click COMP-RAG-REVIEWec [dot] europa [dot] eu (here) to submit your contribution.
- If you are answering this consultation on behalf of a public authority, please click COMP-RAG-REVIEWec [dot] europa [dot] eu (here) to submit your contribution.
Received contributions will be published on this webpage. Only submissions that are clearly marked "CONFIDENTIAL" (in English, in capital letters) will be treated as such and not published. In that case please also provide a non-confidential version of your reply. It is important to read the privacy statement attached to this consultation for information on how your personal data and contribution will be dealt with.
We would appreciate receiving submissions electronically, as attachments to emails in .doc or .pdf format. Please see for contact details below.
Please note that we cannot guarantee to take account of replies received after the deadline.
Consultation document
Please note that the consultation will be launched based on the English version of the text. These are non-official translations. In case of doubt, the English version prevails.
Reference documents
Please note that the background note will be launched based on the English version of the text. The translations into all EU languages will be added gradually to this website. These are non-official translations. In case of doubt, the English version prevails.
- Background note accompanying the consultation on the revised Regional aid guidelines
- Roadmap
- Press release (IP/20/1385)
- Retrospective evaluation study
Results of the public consultation
All non-confidential replies to the consultation are available here.
Reason why the consultation period is less than 12 weeks
Need for an accelerated revision of the guidelines to ensure a timely adoption that leaves sufficient time for the notification and approval of the new regional aid maps to be in place by the end of 2021.