Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014Show full title

Article 6 Incentive effect

1. This Regulation shall apply only to aid which has an incentive effect.

2. Aid shall be considered to have an incentive effect if the beneficiary has submitted a written application for the aid to the Member State concerned before work on the project or activity starts. The application for the aid shall contain at least the following information:

(a) undertaking's name and size;

(b) description of the project, including its start and end dates;

(c) location of the project;

(d) list of project costs;

(e) type of aid (grant, loan, guarantee, repayable advance, equity injection or other) and amount of public funding needed for the project;

3. Ad hoc aid granted to large enterprises shall be considered to have an incentive effect if, in addition to ensuring that the condition laid down in paragraph 2 is fulfilled, the Member State has verified, before granting the aid concerned, that documentation prepared by the beneficiary establishes that the aid will result in one or more of the following:

(a) in the case of regional investment aid: that a project is carried out, which would not have been carried out in the area concerned or would not have been sufficiently profitable for the beneficiary in the area concerned in the absence of the aid.

(b) in all other cases, that there is:

• (b) a material increase in the scope of the project/activity due to the aid, or

• a material increase in the total amount spent by the beneficiary on the project/activity due to the aid, or

• a material increase in the speed of completion of the project/activity concerned;

4. By way of derogation from paragraphs 2 and 3, measures in the form of tax advantages shall be deemed to have an incentive effect if the following conditions are fulfilled:

(a) the measure establishes a right to aid in accordance with objective criteria and without further exercise of discretion by the Member State; and

(b) the measure has been adopted and is in force before work on the aided project or activity has started, except in the case of fiscal successor schemes, where the activity was already covered by the previous schemes in the form of tax advantages.

5. By way of derogation from paragraphs 2, 3 and 4, the following categories of aid are not required to have or shall be deemed to have an incentive effect:

(a) regional operating aid, if the conditions laid down in Article 15 are fulfilled,

(b) aid for access to finance for SMEs, if the relevant conditions laid down in Articles 21 and 22 are fulfilled,

(c) aid for the recruitment of disadvantaged workers in the form of wage subsidies and aid for the employment of workers with disabilities in the form of wage subsidies, if the relevant conditions laid down in Articles 32 and 33 respectively are fulfilled,

(d) aid compensating for the additional costs of employing workers with disabilities, if the conditions laid down in Article 34 are fulfilled;

(e) aid in the form of reductions in environmental taxes under Directive 2003/96/EC, if the conditions laid down in Article 44 of this Regulation are fulfilled;

(f) aid to make good the damage caused by certain natural disasters, if the conditions laid down in Article 50 are fulfilled;

(g) social aid for transport for residents of remote regions, if the conditions laid down in Article 51 are fulfilled;

(h) aid for culture and heritage conservation, if the conditions laid down in Article 53 are fulfilled.