What is the purpose of the Notice on State aid under the form of Guarantees?
The main purpose of the Notice is to determine whether a guarantee constitutes state aid or not, according to Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty. In this respect, the Notice sets out conditions to fulfil and ways to calculate the minimum margin to be charged for a state guarantee in order to be deemed free of aid. If the conditions for buying a comparable guarantee on the financial market are not met and a state guarantee therefore involves aid, the notice indicates how the aid element can be calculated. Does the Notice also address the compatibility of an aid? No, this issue is addressed in the guidelines and frameworks on particular kinds of aids (e.g. environment, research, development and innovation, risk capital, regional aid) and in the regulations exempting certain categories of aid from the obligation of prior notification to the Commission (certain measures in favour of training, employment, SME and disadvantaged regions as well as all aid measures up to €200,000). Why update
