The start-up from January 1, 2022 of the Central System of State Aid Register, where all state aid granted by each competent state authority or Ministry will be registered, announced the Superintendent of State Aid Control Stella Michailidou, in an interview with KYPE, while emphasizing her goal to increase to 70%, from the current 46%, the collection of state aid through the use of the legal framework of EU Exemption Regulations.
Ms. Michailidou states that Today, only 46% of the total state aid in Cyprus amounts to the raising of funds through Exemption Regulations, compared to 96% in other EU member states.
"My goal is that in the next three years Cyprus will not be at 46% in terms of raising funds through the Exemption Regulations, but at least to reach 70% in relation to the total state aid that will be raised in Cyprus ", underlines.
At the same time, the Superintendent emphasizes that the approval of state aid through the Exemption Regulations is done by the State Aid Control Commissioner and not by the European Commission, while at the same time much larger amounts are raised, in absolute numbers.
Ms. Michailidou, although she emphasizes that Cyprus is among the top EU countries in raising European funds, emphasizes, however, that the raising of these funds is not done through the use of Exemption Regulations.
"We want the path that will lead us to the path that the European Commission wants to take, namely the circular and green economy, the Renewable Energy Sources and the digital economy." he stresses.
Regarding the information of the competent authorities and beneficiaries, in her interview with KYPE, Ms. Michailidou said that her Office has so far made 25 presentations on the Exemption Regulations, while from last September until today, as she said, on-site trainings were held. any competent authority in relation to the use of the Central State Aid Registry System.
He added that after the trainings carried out in the competent authorities, "while until now the majority of the projects based on the Exemptions were done by the Ministry of Agriculture, I see more projects from the Ministry of Commerce, which has a leading role in the Recovery and Sustainability Plan".
More specifically, Ms. Michailidou explained that the Exemptions are regulations prepared by the European Commission, according to which the Superintendent of each EU Member State can approve state aid on his own, adding that in this way compatible state aid is considered, emphasizing the areas that the European Commission wants to guide the Member States (green economy, Renewable Energy, digital upgrading, environment, innovation).
Note that "With the approval of the European Commission, the Commissioners of the Member States have been authorized to approve funding at their own limits."
"Obtaining aid from the Exemption Regulations, we first cooperate with the policy that the Commission wants to guide us and secondly, because the approval is up to the respective Commissioner and you do not need to apply to the European Commission for approval, approval is faster and makes the states members to approve plans submitted by the competent authorities more quickly and in accordance with the technical conditions which the relevant competent Authority will wish to register ".
Ms. Michailidou also stressed that "The Exemption Regulation gives priority to small and medium-sized enterprises rather than large enterprises".
He also said that the Exemption Regulations have articles on start-ups, vocational training for people with disabilities, remote areas and regional aid.
Explaining the regional aid, Ms. Michailidou said that the European Commission states that some provinces of the Member State are eligible for additional aid because they are remote or have a specificity, receiving additional funding of 10% or 20%.
Noting that the European Commission calls this process state aid modernization, Ms. Michailidou said that the Commission "wants flexible and efficient states in the direction it wants to lead" such as the circular or green economy.
At this point, the Commissioner stressed that "the aid granted to you by the EU through the Exemption Regulations can not be received through the De minimis Aid".
He also stated that The Exemption Regulations have the cumulative criterion and added that the General Exemption Regulation - which is separated from that of Agriculture and Fisheries - has a total cumulative limit of 200.000 euros over a rolling three years.
The competent authority and the beneficiary have the responsibility to ensure that it does not exceed the total cumulative limit of 200.000 euros and beyond that, as he said, there are some criteria that should be checked by the competent authority or the Ministry, which is more flexible regarding the Exemption Regulations.
Ms. Michailidou said that "it may seem that through de minimis I can get 100% of the funding, but the beneficiary himself prevents his company from raising funds for development actions or for regional aid", emphasizing that "it can be from the Exemption Regulations to receive amounts at a lower percentage but in absolute numbers the amount to be much higher ".
He added that "it is important for the Exemptions to comply with the criteria of incentive, proportionality and transparency in order to ensure that each Member State receives the aid for the purpose for which it was approved".
People and authorities continue to use state aid through de minimis because that is what they have done so far, he said, adding that individual presentations to authorities promoting European programs continue "so that we are even closer to business to the business world is aware "of the Exemption Regulations and to approach the appropriate competent authority that operates in order to be able to raise the available funds through the Exemption Regulations.
Central State Aid Registry System
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In addition, the State Aid Supervisor announced the start of operation on January 1, 2022 of the Central State Aid Registry System, which will initially operate in parallel with the state aid register currently maintained by the competent authorities.
To date, various tests are being carried out on the system and "I hope that on January 1, 2022 we will have the Central State Aid Registry System in operation," he added.
In her interview with KYPE, Ms. Michailidou said that Cyprus "as a Member State we are obliged to maintain a central system of state aid register which is used simultaneously by all competent authorities", adding that "until today when someone gets de minimis is registered in the Register of the competent authority from where it receives the aid ".
He said that with the launch of the Central Registry System, all the competent authorities will register the state aid they provide in a Register, adding that "the system alone will be smart enough to count all the aid".
In other words, there will be a control by the Central Registry System which will limit the additional use of de minimis, he explained, adding that for this reason the use of the Exemption Regulations should start first "so that the beneficiaries are not trapped in its cumulative limit. de minimis and not be entitled to additional money ".
The Superintendent also mentioned that the central system will operate simultaneously with the existing system maintained by each competent authority, explaining that the competent authorities will also register state aid in their own state file.
"This will be done for the remaining three years so as not to lose the rolling three years and from January 1, 2025, only the new system will be put into operation," he noted.
He added that in addition to the control that is done for the cumulative amount of capital allowed to a company, "there is a stricter control regarding the single company (group of companies)", adding that the respective beneficiary is required in writing to certify his single company so that the cumulative limit of 200.000 euros for the single business can be checked.
Recovery and Durability Fund
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Ms. Michailidou said that her office participates from the first day in the technical committee of the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, "quoting our comments and giving some guidelines for the use of Exemption Regulations in some projects, but also in combination", Exemption Regulations and the minimum.
Government Plan of State Guarantees
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The State Aid Supervisor said that the State Guarantee Plan, which was issued by the Ministry of Finance and approved by Parliament, falls within the Provisional Framework issued by the European Commission to deal with the effects of the pandemic, adding that the Plan was sent by Finance "in our Office and we sent it to the European Commission which approved it".
Ms. Michailidou said that this Temporary Framework has now been extended to June 2022, giving businesses time to apply to banks for loans under state guarantees.