The European Commission published the studies prepared with Lear’s support for the fitness check of State Aid rules

Lear, together with DIW Berlin and Sheppard Mullin, has been appointed to support the European Commission’s “fitness check” on the “Guidelines on State aid to promote risk finance investments” and the “Guidelines on State aid to airports and airlines”. The Guidelines were part of the State Aid Modernisation, a package of rules meant to simplify the procedure State Members must follow to implement State aid. The fitness check is an evaluation aimed at deciding whether to further prolong or update the provisional rules of the Modernisation package.

The support study for the evaluation of the rules for operating aid under the EU aviation framework carries out a financial and econometric analysis to assess whether the rules are fit for their purpose: the focus is on the adequateness of the transitional period and of the passenger thresholds used to establish which airports have access to operating aid. The team collected data from a sample of airports to inform its analyses.

The evaluation support study on the EU rules on State aid for access to finance for SMEs evaluates whether the rules are adequate to deal with those factors that generally impede SMEs from accessing financing schemes, such as high cost of credit and lack of guarantees. The team collected evidence from interviews with stakeholders, including financial intermediaries and beneficiaries of national schemes, and developed five case studies analysing in depth aid schemes implemented by five different Member States.

Find out more on the published studies here

Read more on our engagement on Eu aviation framework 

Read more on our engagement on State aid for access to finance for SME’s