Article 1, Point (24) · Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1237

Contents

(24)the following Section 16 is inserted after Article 56c:‘SECTION 16Aid involved in financial products supported by the InvestEU FundArticle 56dScope and common conditions1.This Section shall apply to aid involved in financial products supported by the InvestEU Fund that provide aid to implementing partners, financial intermediaries or final beneficiaries.2.The aid shall be compatible with the internal market within the meaning of Article 107(3) of the Treaty and shall be exempted from the notification requirement of Article 108(3) of the Treaty, provided that the conditions laid down in Chapter I, this Article, and either Article 56e or Article 56f are fulfilled.3.The aid shall comply with all applicable conditions laid down in Regulation (EU) 2021/523 and the InvestEU Investment Guidelines laid down in the Annex to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1078^note.4.The maximum thresholds laid down in Articles 56e and 56f shall apply to the total outstanding financing, in so far as that financing provided under any financial product supported by the InvestEU Fund contains aid. The maximum thresholds shall apply:

(a)per project in the case of aid covered by Article 56e(2) and (4), Article 56e(5), point (a)(i), Article 56e(6) and (7), Article 56e(8), points (a) and (b), and Article 56e(9);

(a)the nominal amount of total financing provided per final beneficiary under the support of the InvestEU Fund does not exceed EUR 15 million and is provided to:

(i)unlisted SMEs that have not yet been operating in any market or have been operating for less than 7 years following their first commercial sale;

(ii)unlisted SMEs entering a new product or geographical market, where the initial investment for entering into a new product or geographical market must be higher than 50 % of the average annual turnover in the preceding 5 years;

(iii)SMEs and small mid-caps that are innovative enterprises as defined in Article 2, point (80);

(a)comply with the conditions set out in one of paragraphs 2 to 9; and

(a)aid shall only be granted to projects fulfilling all compatibility conditions laid down in Article 52 unless indicated otherwise in points (c) and (d) of this paragraph;

(a)aid shall only be granted for investments in energy infrastructure in gas and electricity not exempted from third party access, tariff regulation and unbundling, based on the internal energy market legislation for the following categories of projects:

(i)as regards gas infrastructure, projects included in the prevailing Union list of Projects of Common Interest in Annex VII to Regulation (EU) No 347/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note;

(ii)as regards electricity infrastructure:

(1)smart grids, including investments in the development, smartening and modernisation of electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure;

(2)other projects:

—which fulfil any of the criteria laid down in Article 4(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 347/2013, or

—which are included in the prevailing Union list of Projects of Common Interest in Annex VII to Regulation (EU) No 347/2013;

(3)other projects, with the exclusion of electricity storage, in assisted areas;

(iii)electricity storage projects, based on new and innovative technology, irrespective of the voltage level of the connection to the network;

(a)the nominal amount of total financing provided to any final beneficiary under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed:

(i)EUR 100 million per project for investments in infrastructure used for the provision of social services and for education; EUR 150 million per project for cultural and heritage conservation purposes and activities set out in Article 53(2), including natural heritage;

(ii)EUR 30 million for activities related to social services;

(iii)EUR 75 million for activities related to culture and heritage conservation; and

(iv)EUR 5 million for education and training.

(a)aid for infrastructure, except ports, shall be provided only to the following projects:

(i)projects of common interest as defined in Article 3, point (a), of Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013, except for projects concerning port or airport infrastructure;

(ii)connections to Trans-European transport network urban nodes;

(iii)rolling stock only for the provision of rail transport services not covered by a public service contract within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note, provided the beneficiary is a new entrant;

(iv)urban transport;

(v)recharging or refuelling infrastructure that supplies vehicles with electricity or renewable hydrogen;

(a)aid shall be provided only to the following projects:

(i)investment in water supply and waste water infrastructure for the general public;

(ii)investment in waste recycling and preparation for re-use in line with Article 47(1) to (6), insofar as it is aimed at managing waste generated by other undertakings;

(iii)investment in research infrastructure;

(iv)investment in the construction or upgrade of innovation cluster facilities;

(a)aid shall be provided only to the following projects:

(i)investments enabling undertakings to remedy or prevent damage to physical surroundings (including climate change) or natural resources by a beneficiary’s own activities, insofar as the investment goes beyond Union standards for environmental protection or increases the level of environmental protection in the absence of Union standards or constitutes an early adaptation to future Union standards for environmental protection;

(ii)measures improving the energy efficiency of an undertaking, insofar as the energy efficiency improvements are not undertaken to ensure that the undertaking complies with Union standards already adopted, even if they are not yet in force;

(iii)remediation of contaminated sites, insofar as no legal or physical person liable for the environmental damage under the applicable law is identified in line with the “polluter pays” principle as referred to in Article 45(3);

(iv)environmental studies;

(v)enhancement and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems where that activity contributes to protecting, conserving or restoring biodiversity and to achieving the good condition of ecosystems, or to protecting ecosystems that are already in good condition;

(a)aid may be granted for:

(i)fundamental research;

(ii)industrial research;

(iii)experimental development;

(iv)process innovation or organisational innovation for SMEs;

(v)innovation advisory services and innovation support services for SMEs;

(vi)digitalisation for SMEs;

(b)per final beneficiary in the case of aid covered by Article 56e(5), points (a)(ii) and (iii), Article 56e(8), point (d), Article 56e(10) and Article 56f.

(b)the nominal amount of total financing provided per final beneficiary under the support of the InvestEU Fund does not exceed EUR 15 million and is provided to SMEs or small mid-caps whose principal activities are located in assisted areas provided that the financing is not used for relocation of activities as defined in Article 2, point (61a);

(b)where the financing is provided in the form of loans to the final beneficiary, have an interest rate that corresponds at least to the base rate of the reference rate applicable at the time of the granting of the loan.

(b)the nominal amount of total financing provided to any final beneficiary per project under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed EUR 150 million;

(b)investment aid for generation of energy from renewable energy sources shall comply with the following requirements:

(i)aid shall only be granted for new installations selected on a competitive, transparent, objective and non-discriminatory basis;

(ii)aid may be granted to new installations also in combination with storage equipment or hydrogen electrolysers, provided that both the electricity or hydrogen storage equipment and the hydrogen electrolysers only use the energy generated by renewable energy installation(s);

(iii)aid shall not be granted for hydropower installations that do not comply with the conditions laid down in Directive 2000/60/EC;

(iv)in case of installations producing biofuels, aid shall only be granted for installations producing sustainable biofuels other than food based biofuels.

(b)aid shall not be granted for training aimed at complying with mandatory national training requirements.

(b)aid for port infrastructure projects shall comply with the following requirements:

(i)aid may only be provided for investments in access infrastructure and port infrastructure that are made available to interested users on an equal and non-discriminatory basis on market terms;

(ii)any concession or other entrustment to a third party to construct, upgrade, operate or rent aided port infrastructure shall be assigned on a competitive, transparent, non-discriminatory and unconditional basis;

(iii)aid shall not be granted for investments in port superstructures.

(b)the nominal amount of total financing provided to any final beneficiary per project under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed EUR 100 million.

(b)without prejudice to point (a), where the aid measure relates to the improvement of the energy efficiency of (1) residential buildings; (2) buildings dedicated to the provision of education or social services or to activities related to justice, police or fire-fighting services; (3) buildings dedicated to activities related to public administration; or (4) buildings referred to in (1), (2) or (3) and in which activities other than those mentioned in (1), (2) or (3) occupy less than 35 % of the internal floor area, aid may also be granted for measures that simultaneously improve the energy efficiency of those buildings and integrate any or all of the following investments:

(i)integrated installations generating renewable energy on-site of the building concerned by the energy efficiency aid measure. The integrated on-site renewable energy installation relates to production of electricity and/or heat. It may be combined with equipment for the storage of the renewable energy generated on-site;

(ii)on-site storage installations;

(iii)equipment and related infrastructure incorporated to the building for the recharging of electric vehicles of the building’s users;

(iv)investments for the digitalisation of the building, in particular to increase its smart readiness. The investments for the digitalisation of the building may include interventions limited to passive in-house wiring or structured cabling for data networks and, if necessary, the ancillary part of the passive network on the private property outside the building. Wiring or cabling for data networks outside the private property is excluded;

The final beneficiary of the aid may be either building owner(s) or tenant(s), depending on who obtains the financing for the project;

(b)for projects falling under points (a) (i), (ii) and (iii), the nominal amount of total financing provided to any final beneficiary per project under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed EUR 75 million. For projects falling under point (a) (iv), (v) and (vi), the nominal amount of total financing provided to any final beneficiary per project under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed EUR 30 million.

(c)the project connects only socioeconomic drivers that are public administrations or public or private entities entrusted with the operation of services of general interest or of services of general economic interest within the meaning of Article 106(2) of the Treaty. Projects including elements or entities other than those specified under this point are excluded;

(c)The nominal amount of total financing provided to any final beneficiary per project referred to in point (a) under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed EUR 150 million. The nominal amount of total financing provided to any final beneficiary per project referred to in point (b) under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed EUR 75 million.

(c)the nominal amount of total financing provided under point (a) or (b) to any final beneficiary per project under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed EUR 150 million.

(c)the nominal amount of total financing provided to any final beneficiary per project referred to in point (a) under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed EUR 50 million;

(c)the nominal amount of total financing provided per final beneficiary under the support of the InvestEU Fund does not exceed EUR 2 million and is provided to SMEs or small mid-caps.

(d)by way of derogation from Article 52(4), the identified market failure must be verified either by available appropriate mapping or, when such mapping is not available, by a public consultation, as follows:

(i)the mapping can be considered appropriate if it is not older than 18 months and includes all networks able to reliably provide speeds of at least 100 Mbps download but below 300 Mbps download (threshold speeds) that pass the premises of an eligible socioeconomic driver identified in point (c). This mapping must be carried out by the competent public authority, must take into account all networks able to reliably provide the threshold speeds present or credibly planned in the next three years or within the same time horizon as the planned supported intervention, which cannot be shorter than two years, and must be performed (i) for purely fixed networks at address level on the basis of premises passed; and (ii) for fixed wireless access networks at address level on the basis of premises passed or on the basis of maximum 100 x100 metre grids;

(ii)the public consultation must be carried out by the competent public authority through publication on an appropriate website inviting interested parties to comment on the draft measure and to submit substantiated information regarding networks able to reliably provide speeds of at least 100 Mbps download but below 300 Mbps download (threshold speeds) present or credibly planned in the next three years or within the same time horizon as the planned supported intervention, which cannot be shorter than two years, that pass the premises of an eligible socioeconomic driver as referred to in point (c), based on information: (i) for purely fixed networks, at address level on the basis of premises passed; and (ii) for fixed wireless access networks, at address level on the basis of premises passed or on the basis of maximum 100 x100 metre grids. The public consultation shall last at least 30 days.

(d)the nominal amount of total financing provided per project referred to in point (b) under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed EUR 50 million per final beneficiary and building;

(e)aid for measures that improve the energy efficiency of buildings referred to in point (b) may also relate to the facilitation of energy performance contracts subject to the following conditions:

(i)the support takes the form of a loan or guarantee to the provider of the energy efficiency improvement measures under an energy performance contract, or consists in a financial product aimed to refinance the respective provider (e.g. factoring, forfeiting);

(ii)the nominal amount of total financing provided under the support of the InvestEU Fund does not exceed EUR 30 million;

(iii)the support is provided to SMEs or small mid-caps;

(iv)the support is provided for energy performance contracting within the meaning of Article 2(27) of Directive 2012/27/EU;

(v)the energy performance contracting relates to a building referred to in paragraph 8, point (b).

5.Aid shall not be granted in the form of refinancing of or guarantees on existing portfolios of financial intermediaries.Article 56eConditions for aid involved in financial products supported by the InvestEU Fund1.Aid to the final beneficiary under a financial product supported by the InvestEU Fund shall:2.Aid for projects of common interest in the area of trans-European digital connectivity infrastructure financed under Regulation (EU) 2021/1153 or awarded a Seal of Excellence quality label under that Regulation shall only be granted to projects fulfilling all general and specific compatibility conditions laid down in Article 52b. The nominal amount of total financing provided to any final beneficiary per project under the support of the InvestEU Fund shall not exceed EUR 150 million.3.Aid for investments in fixed broadband networks to connect only certain eligible socioeconomic drivers shall comply with the following conditions:4.Aid for energy generation and energy infrastructure shall comply with the following conditions:5.Aid for social, educational, cultural and natural heritage infrastructure and activities shall comply with the following conditions:6.Aid for transport and transport infrastructures shall comply with the following conditions:7.Aid for other infrastructures shall comply with the following conditions:8.Aid for environmental protection, including climate protection, shall comply with the following conditions:9.Aid for research, development, innovation and digitalisation shall comply with the following conditions:10.SMEs or, where applicable, small mid-caps may, in addition to the categories of aid provided for in paragraphs 2 to 9, also receive aid in the form of financing supported by the InvestEU Fund provided that one of the following conditions are fulfilled:Article 56fConditions for aid involved in intermediated commercially-driven financial products supported by the InvestEU Fund1.Financing to the final beneficiaries shall be provided by commercial financial intermediaries which shall be selected in an open, transparent and non-discriminatory way based on objective criteria.2.The commercial financial intermediary that provides financing to the final beneficiary shall retain a minimum risk exposure of 20 % of each financing transaction.3.The nominal amount of total financing provided to each final beneficiary through the commercial financial intermediary shall not exceed EUR 7,5 million.