On 23 May 2011 the Italian authorities contacted the European Commission regarding their intention to prolong their state aid scheme in favor of industrial and precompetitive R&D and general training measures until31 December 2013. The scheme will be implemented by direct grants, tax allowances and interest subsidies.
 
In its decision of 8 August 2000 on case N173/2000, the EC concluded that the aid regime constituted state aid pursuant art. 87 (1) EC (now Art.107 (1) TFEU).
 
The EC decided not to raise objection to the prolongation of the scheme since it does not alter the previous decision made concerning the N 173/2000 case. Thus, the aid regime remains compatible with the internal market in the view of Art. 107 (3) c) TFEU.
 
A state measure in the GTA database is assessed solely in terms of the extent to which its implementation affects the extent of discrimination against foreign commercial interests. On this metric, the state aid proposed here is discriminatory.