The European Commission publishes the 2023 State Aid Scoreboard relating to the State aid expenditure in 2022. It provides a comprehensive overview of State aid expenditure in the EU based on the reports provided by the Member States.
The 2023 edition shows that, despite a strong reduction in State aid expenditure in 2022 compared to 2021, Member States continued to support companies affected by the crises provoked by the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In 2022, Member States reported approximately €228 billion in State aid expenditures for all objectives, including crisis measures relating to the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine and all other measures. This corresponds to 1.4% of the 2022 EU GDP and represents a 34.8% reduction compared to 2021, when expenditures reached €349.7 billion.
The results show that 33.6% of this support (€76.65 billion) helped companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic to remain viable, while 17% (€39.33 billion) corresponded to measures adopted to counterbalance the negative effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The 2023 State Aid Scoreboard shows in particular that for 2022 aid expenditure:
- Despite being still at significant levels, the difference in State aid spending across Member States consistently reduced compared to 2021. State aid expenditure ranged between 2.1% and 0.3% of the national GDP in 2022, while it ranged between 4.6% and 0.9% of the national GDP in 2021.
- The 2022 State aid expenditure reduction is mainly driven by the phase-out of the measures adopted to mitigate the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, given the improvement of the sanitary crisis in Europe and the progressive lifting of the related restrictive measures. In 2022, under coronavirus-related measures, Member States spent €76.65 billion, representing around 33.6% of the total State aid expenditure and 0.48% of the 2022 EU GDP. Expenditure for coronavirus-related measures reduced by 60.5% compared to 2021.
- Member States introduced measures approved under the Temporary Crisis Framework (‘TCF’) to counterbalance the negative effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine on the economy. Total expenditure for measures related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine amounted to €39.33 billion, representing around 17% of the total State aid spending and 0.25% of the EU GDP.
- Looking at the budget of the crisis measures approved, only a relatively small part was spent by Member States. Between the adoption of the COVID Temporary Framework on 19 March 2020 and December 2022, Member States mobilized unprecedented levels of support to ensure that otherwise viable companies hit hard by the pandemic crisis could keep afloat. This support corresponded to around one-third (34%) of all the aid approved in nominal amounts in this period. In the first year of the implementation of TCF measures (i.e. 2022), around 9.6% of all the aid approved was disbursed in nominal amounts.
- In 2022, Member States have reduced their spending also for non-crisis objectives. They spent €112 billion (0.7% of the EU 2022 GDP) representing around 49% of the total State aid spending. Compared to 2021, this corresponds to a reduction of 28% (a reduction of €43.53 billion), after adjusting for inflation. It appears that, due to the need to implement measures to mitigate the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the remaining expenditure related to the coronavirus crisis, Member States decreased their spending on non-crisis-related objectives.
- Outside crisis aid, environmental aid remains the main policy focus of Member States. Environmental protection and energy savings are the policy objective for which Member States have spent by far the most in 2022 (€41.51 billion, around 37% of the State aid expenditure for non-crisis measures), albeit that the value of spending was down by 46% compared to 2021 in real terms. The second non-crisis policy objective is regional development (€13.91 billion, more than 12% of the State aid expenditure for non-crisis measures), which by contrast shows a 4.8% increase in 2022.
- For what concerns State aid expenditure for block-exempted measures (i.e. measures that are deemed compatible with EU State aid rules and are exempted from the requirement of prior notification to and approval by the Commission):
- The share of block-exempted measures keeps rising. Member States implemented 1,901 new measures under the General Block Exemption Regulation (‘GBER’), 284 under the Agricultural Block Exemption Regulation (‘ABER’), and 18 under the Fishery Block Exemption Regulation (‘FIBER’) in 2022, corresponding altogether to 84% of the total number of new State aid measures. Excluding the crisis measures, the new GBER measures account for 93% of the total number of new non-crisis measures. The expenditure under GBER measures also decreased in 2022 (a reduction of 12% compared to 2021), although to a lesser extent than the overall reduction of State aid expenditure across instruments.
- The Commission focuses on the potentially most distortive aid measures. In 2022, the median spending for notified schemes, which require an assessment by the Commission, was around €4.2 million, well above the median value for GBER schemes, which was around €0.8 million.
This 2023 edition of the State Aid Scoreboard includes six special focus points:
- State aid provided in the context of the coronavirus crisis;
- State aid measures supporting the economy in mitigating the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine;
- Block-exempted State aid expenditure;
- State aid for energy and environmental protection;
- State aid to deploy broadband networks; and
- State aid to boost industrial innovation and global technological leadership.
