The European Commission announced on Monday that it has approved under the EU State aid rules, Romania‘s map for granting regional aid from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2027, within the framework of the revised Regional Aid Guidelines (RAG).
„The revised RAG adopted by the Commission on 19 April 2021 and entering into force on 1 January 2022, enable Member States to support the least favoured European regions in catching up and to reduce disparities in terms of economic well-being, income and unemployment cohesion objectives that are at the heart of the Union,” said the EU Commission in a press release.
Romania’s regional aid map defines the Romanian regions eligible for regional investment aid and establishes the maximum aid intensities in the eligible regions. Under the revised RAG, regions covering 89.34% of the population of Romania will be eligible for regional investment aid.
Seven regions of Romania (Nord-Vest, Centru, Nord-Est, Sud-Est, Sud-Muntenia, Sud-Vest Oltenia and Vest) are among the most disadvantaged regions in the EU, with a GDP per capita below 75% of EU average.
The regions are eligible for maximum aid intensities for large enterprises between 30% and 60%, depending on the GDP per capita of the respective ‘a’ area and includes an increase of 10% for parts of these regions that experienced a relatively high population loss over the past decade.
Twenty-eight municipalities, in four different parts of the region of Ilfov neighbouring with the ‘a’ area SudMuntenia are eligible for aid. The maximum aid intensities for large enterprises in these areas will vary between 35% and 45%, in order to ensure that the difference with the bordering ‘a’ areas is limited to 15%.
The EU Commission explained that for all the above areas, the maximum aid intensities can be increased by 10 percentage points for investments made by medium-sized enterprises and by 20 percentage points for investments made by small enterprises, for their initial investments with eligible costs up to €50 million.