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The Ministry of Finance has not submitted a new application for approval of the Fixed Cost Subsidy II for national companies. Blümel holds the EU Commission solely responsible for blocking Corona’s aid measures.
Finance Minister Gernot Blümel does not show any willingness to compromise and thus intensifies the conflict with the EU Commission on the fixed cost subsidy II. On Wednesday, it waived a reformulated request to EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager for approval. “Obviously, we can help Italians, Spanish or French with Austrian tax money, but not Austrian companies,” he sums up instead.
The new fixed-cost subsidy is subject to approval in accordance with EU law. The EU Commission has made clear several times that Austria’s justification for the aid is insufficient. You couldn’t deal with a natural disaster, as was still possible with the first version of the fixed-cost grant, but you had to deal with a severe economic crisis. After all, there is no longer a blockade, argued the head of the EU Commission Representation in Vienna, Martin Selmayr. The last point of controversy was the maximum amount of financing – in most cases the commission insisted on 800,000 per company – and the duration of the measure.
Connection with the Vienna election campaign
According to Selmayr, in most cases the support would be compatible with EU state aid law. More recently, it simply pointed out that the Ministry of Finance had made mistakes in its request to Brussels. In the case of the Crown’s aid measures for the state of Lower Austria, approval could be given within three days. The delay was now caused by the actions of the Ministry of Finance. However, the EU representative also hinted that he saw a connection to the Vienna election campaign, in which Blümel was running as the main candidate.
Criticism also comes from the opposition. Beate Meinl-Reisinger, head of NEOS: “Blümel relies on a crude anti-EU spectacle rather than on aid for our companies. The fact that aid is often slow or a legal fudge puts businesses and jobs at risk. The finance minister must finally deliver and pay the billions of the first aid package that has been approved for a long time, in lieu of election campaigns. “
While the finance minister criticizes the EU bureaucracy almost every day, his own ministry had to make it clear that the € 8 billion aid that had been earmarked for fixed-cost grant II was not used in any way . As of July, only 58.9 million euros had been disbursed and an additional 121.4 million euros had been approved.
(“Die Presse”, print edition, 09.17.2020)
