Revision of the rescue and restructuring State aid guidelines

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise welcomes the Commission’s review of the Rescue and restructuring guidelines for state aid. In summary, we would like to highlight the following recommendations:

1. We recommend that the steel sector continues to be excluded from the guidelines.

2. We welcome a review of the concept of an undertaking in difficulty in order to better enable support for small, newly established innovative companies. In this regard, the Commission may consider changes to

a. the period during which a company is classified as a newly established undertaking,

b. whether any of the parameters listed in point 20 (a–d) should be adjusted, or

c. whether additional exemption criteria could be introduced to capture the type of newly established, innovative companies that should not fall within the definition.

3. We welcome the Commission’s efforts to update the guidelines to provide greater clarity and a regulatory framework that reflects current case law.