In May 2014 the European Commission has published the „eGuide for decision makers" focusing on „the broadband State aid rules explained", which WIK-Consult has worked out on behalf of the European Commission.
The Guide is targeting on public sector decision makers and it aims at explaining the principles of the European Commission’s assessment of public support to broadband deployment projects on the basis of the "Broadband Guidelines".
The objective of the handbook is to make broadband infrastructure deployment faster and easier. The Guide illuminates the implications of broadband deployment in white, grey and black (basic broadband or NGA) areas and it elucidates in detail the key criteria applied for the assessment of State aid (compatibility conditions, "step change", the proportionality of a broadband measure, and the balancing test). Furthermore, the Guide presents an overview of a range of measures that either are not constituting State aid (e.g. rolling-out a broadband network for non-commercial purposes, activities under the "market economy investor principle") or, albeit constituting State aid, for which no notification is required (like e.g. support under an already existing broadband framework scheme, the "de minimis" rule, the upcoming new possibilities under the revised General Block Exemption Regulation, and State aid approval for broadband projects under the Regional (State) aid Guidelines). In addition, the Guide gives detailed recommendations as to an efficient execution of a broadband project, in particular vis-à-vis the pre-notification and notification.
The handbook is available for download on the website of the European Commission.
