Summer Course on the Concept & Principles of State Aid

Topics of the Summer Course

Day 1: Concept & Assessment of State Aid

• Concept and principles of State aid
• Compatibility of State aid
• The Market Economy Operator Principle (MEOP)
• Group work: Does a measure constitute State aid?

Day 2: State Aid Exemptions: De Minimis & GBER; Procedures

• De minimis Regulation
• General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER)
• GBER: Best practice for application in Member States
• Procedures: Notification & recovery of unlawful State aid
• Practical session: Procedural rules, Guidelines, GBER

Day 3: SGEI & Main Horizontal Guidelines

• Concept of Services of general economic interest (SGEI)
• Specific sectors: SGEI rules incl. case studies
• Regional aid & practical cases
• Aid for Research, development and innovation (R&D&I)
• Environmental and energy aid & practical cases

Day 4: Infrastructure Funding

• Funding of infrastructure in compliance with State aid
• Practical exercises on infrastructure funding

Target Group

Public officials from:

• Ministries and other national authorities
• National Competition Authorities
• State Aid Monitoring Offices
• Courts of Auditors
• Regional governments
• Communal and City councils
• National and Regional Development Agencies

Involved in granting State aid in sectors such as:

• Transport and infrastructure
• Finance
• Environment and Energy
• Telecommunication and Broadband
• Social services and health
• Agriculture
• Research, Development & Innovation

ESI funds experts from:

• Institutions coordinating the national
  strategies for Structural Funds
• Managing, Certifying and Audit Authorities, Intermediate bodies
• Bodies implementing EU funded projects
• Lawyers and consultants
• Experts from Public and private banks
• Academics

Methodology

The four-day intensive course offers the possibility to meet with experts from EU institutions, Member States as well as the private sector. The different perspectives of our experienced trainers will support you in applying complex rules to your practical day-to-day work. To achieve the best results, a mix of learning methods will be applied in the course.

Our approach combines the three stages of learning to ensure that the participants obtain the best possible understanding of the applied rules:

1) Identification of the main rules and principles,
2) Appreciation of the complexities and limitation of the principles,
3) Application of the rules and principles.

The participants will be actively involved in the course. The sessions will combine presentations, case studies and discussion on practical problems. You will have ample opportunity to present your own issues and discuss them with the speakers and participants from other Member States.

Just send to us your cases and questions in advance! We will forward them to our speakers, who will include your issues in the programme and answer them during the course. All information concerning such problems and cases will be treated confidentially.

We will organise different social activities for our participants on site, during which you will have an opportunity to meet the experts and other participants and to discuss your questions in an informal atmosphere.

Course materials are available for download after the event.

Hybrid Course

The hybrid course by Lexxion Publisher is a new combined event format, which takes place in parallel: face-to-face and online. This new event format offers participants and speakers the opportunity to attend the event live on site or online, depending on the current situation, which gives additional flexibility. Our primary goal is to provide our online participants with the same high-quality experience as participants on-the-spot. For this, we place particular emphasis on interaction. This includes virtual networking during coffee breaks, active participation in discussions and the opportunity to ask questions via chat or microphone.

We take care of your wellbeing

• Regular cleaning of surfaces and sanitary facilities
• Sufficient ventilation of event room
• Recommended hand hygiene
• Possibility to keep distance between all speakers and participants
• Recommended mouth and nose protection

Course Material – No need to miss anything!

If you are unable to attend the course you may want to order all the presentations shown during the event. The price is € 299,- (excl. of VAT). If interested, please contact August Andreae.