The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, an amendment to Italy’s map for granting regional aid from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2027, within the framework of the revised Regional aid Guidelines (‘RAG’). On 2 December 2021, the Commission approved the initial regional aid map for this period for Italy.
In this map, Italy had designated only the regions eligible for regional investment aid under the derogation of Article 107(3)(a) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) (so-called ‘a’ areas). The amendment to Italy’s regional aid map approved today defines the Italian regions eligible for regional investment aid under the derogation of Article 107(3)(c) TFEU (so-called ‘c’ areas). In order to address regional disparities, Italy has designated as so-called non-predefined ‘c’ areas, parts of the regions of Abruzzo, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Piemonte, Toscana, Umbria, Valle d’Aosta and Veneto.
The maximum amount of aid for large enterprises in these areas can vary between 10% and 25% of the eligible investment costs. These amounts can be increased by 10 percentage points for investments made by medium-sized enterprises, and by 20 percentage points for investments made by small enterprises, for their initial investments with eligible costs up to €50 million. The non-confidential version of today’s decision will be made available under the case number SA.101134 (in the State Aid Register) on the DG Competition website. New publications of state aid decisions on the internet and in the Official Journal are listed in the Competition Weekly e-News.