State aid: Commission formally adopts General Block Exemption rules to facilitate green and digital transition

State aid: Commission formally adopts General Block Exemption rules to facilitate green and digital transition

The European Commission has formally adopted a targeted amendment to the General Block Exemption Regulation (‘GBER’) to further facilitate, simplify and speed up support for the EU‘s green and digital transitions, while protecting the level playing field in the Single Market. The amended GBER was already endorsed by the Commission on 9 March 2023, together with the adoption of the new Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework.

The GBER declares specific categories of State aid compatible with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, provided that they fulfil certain conditions. It therefore exempts these categories from the requirement of prior notification to and approval by the Commission, enabling Member States to grant the aid directly and informing the Commission only ex-post.

The amended GBER provides Member States more flexibility to design and implement aid that is key for the transition to climate neutrality and to a net-zero industry. It also reflects recent changes to various sets of State aid Guidelines to ensure that the GBER remains fit for the green and digital transition, in particular the new Regional Aid Guidelines, the Climate, Energy and Environmental State aid Guidelines, the Risk Finance Guidelines, the Research, Development and Innovation Framework and the Broadband Guidelines.

The amended GBER will enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. The text of the amending Regulation adopted today will be available here.