Global Trade Alert

On 21 December 2009, the Slovak authorities notified a temporary aid scheme for granting limited amounts of compatible aid under the Temporary Framework for State aid measures to support primary agricultural production in the current financial and economic crisis.
 
The aid will be provided in the form of direct grant. The notified measure has a budget of EUR3 319 391. The beneficiaries of the notified scheme will be all primary producers (small and medium-sized undertakings active in the primary production of agricultural products as well as large enterprises active in primary agricultural production).
 
The Slovak authorities estimate the number of beneficiaries to range between 101 and 500.
 
The Commission concluded that the measure contains state aid and gave the following assessment:
 
"The aid at issue is financed out of State resources and benefits certain undertakings. Pursuant to the case law of the Court of Justice, aid to an undertaking is deemed to affect trade between Member States if that undertaking operates in a market open to intra-Union trade. The mere fact that the competitive position of an undertaking is strengthened compared with other competing undertakings, by giving it an economic benefit which it would not otherwise have received in the normal course of its business, points to a possible distortion of
competition. The beneficiaries of the aid at issue operate on a market where intra- Union trade takes place. The aid measure could therefore distort competition and affect trade between Member States and consequently constitutes aid pursuant to Article 107(1) of the TFEU." (par. 26 of the letter from the EC to Slovakia - Brussels, C(2010)).
 
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.