The European Commission's latest State Aid Scoreboard shows that Member States have increasingly used the possibilities offered by EU state aid rules to support environmental protection projects. State aid expenditure for the environment has increased significantly in the EU over the last seven years, partly due to a rise in reductions or exemptions from environmental taxes. This increase is in line with the Commission's efforts to encourage Member States to better target their aid. With new guidelines adopted in January offering greater possibilities to award environmental aid, the Commission expects an increase in the number of environmental measures notified by Member States.

 Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said "It is encouraging that Member States are focussing their aid on environmental measures. This trend should be reinforced by the new Environmental Aid Guidelines."

This Scoreboard focuses on Member States' use of state aid for environmental purposes. Over the period of validity of the previous environmental aid guidelines (2001-2007), the Commission took around 350 decisions. In the vast majority of cases (98%), the Commission found the aid to be compatible. In many of these cases, competition concerns are resolved during the initial examination so that the Commission can approve the project without an in-depth investigation.

Although the number of new environmental aid measures remained stable for most Member States since 2001, total expenditure for environmental purposes doubled between 2001 and 2006 from €7 to €14 billion. In relative terms, environmental aid increased by 50% as a proportion of GDP.

This average hides significant disparities between Member States. The largest aid grantors in 2004 - 2006 were Sweden (0.77% of GDP), Denmark (0.35%) and Germany (0.32 %), followed by Austria, The Netherlands and Finland each of which granted aid above the EU average. Environmental aid expenditure in the UK stood at half the EU-27 average, while all other Member States granted aid amounting to less than one quarter of the EU-27 average in terms of GDP (see table).

What is the State Aid Scoreboard?

The Scoreboard is the Commission’s benchmarking instrument for state aid, measuring progress towards the European Council's calls for "less and better targeted aid". In March 2000, the European Council called on the Commission, the Council and Member States to "further their efforts to ... reduce the general level of state aid, shifting the emphasis from supporting individual companies or sectors towards tackling horizontal objectives of Community interest, such as employment, regional development, environment and training or research". The call for less and better targeted aid has been repeated at successive European Councils. The Scoreboard is published twice a year, inthe Spring and inthe Autumn in the three working languages of the EU; English, French and German.