The EC launched a consultation with stakeholders, as part of the evaluation of the Broadband State Aid Guidelines.
State aid is allowed in market failure areas: The Broadband State Aid Guidelines enable EU Member States to provide support for the deployment of broadband networks. In particular, they allow for public investments where a market failure exists and where these investments bring a significant improvement to the market in terms of service availability, capacity, speeds and competition.
Changes could come in 2021: On 8 September 2020, the EC opened a consultation for EU Member States and other stakeholders, to provide views on the existing EU state aid rules on public support for the deployment of broadband networks. At present there is no indication as to which changes the EC could make to the guidelines. Any proposal will be formulated taking into account the outcome of the consultation, which is due to close on 5 January 2021.
What will the consultation look at? The EC is also consulting on the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) which exempts Member States from notifying aid measures supporting the deployment of broadband networks in areas where no infrastructure of the same category exists or is credibly planned in the near future. The consultation will assess whether the Broadband State Aid Guidelines and the GBER have met their objectives, what effect they have had on the market and on competition, and whether they need to be updated in light of recent technological and market developments and the new EU digital policy goals.
