By Judith Ugwumadu | 18 December 2014

The European Commission said that it approved state aid evaluation plans for two different schemes in the Czech Republic and the UK, the first plans to be put in place following a modernisation of the regulations.

The €2.8bn Czech Investment Incentives programme, and the UK’s £3.2bn Regional Growth Fund are both intended to help spur investment and development.

The commission first set out plans to modernise the state aid rules – which are intended to stop governments from interfering in the European Union’s single market – in 2012. The reforms are intended to allow governments to use public funds support policies aimed at boosting economic growth, even when these involve direct support to companies.

Following the agreement, the EC said the schemes could now run until 2020 without requiring further commission approval.

The evaluation plans will allow the EC to monitor that taxpayer money is being spent on smart aid measures which contribute to economic growth and do not harm fair competition.

Commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, said: ‘Evaluating the impact of large state aid schemes will provide part of the groundwork for designing better state aid measures. We need to promote good aid, stamp out bad aid and ensure transparency of where the money goes and what its impact is.’

As part of the modernisation of the state aid rules, the commission intends to work with member states to help them design approaches to fund infrastructure projects that will be approved.

Vestager added that changing the state aid rules was ‘only half the battle’.

‘One of the key challenges of my mandate will be to see that State Aid Modernisation is implemented in practice,’ she added.