Practical guidance on how to assess the existence of aid for risk finance measures

Practical guidance on how to assess the existence of aid for risk finance measures

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition has issued practical guidance for Member States to assess whether or not public measures to facilitate certain companies' access to finance, constitute State aid.
In its Notice on the notion of State aid (‘Notice'), the Commission clarifies that, if a Member State intervenes as a private investor would do, and is remunerated for the risk assumed in a way a private investor would accept under market conditions, such an intervention can be considered free of State aid. This is the so-called market economy operator principle (‘MEOP'), which has been developed by the Court of Justice of the European Union. (...)