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State aid of 228 billion euros granted by EU in 2022
Despite a significant reduction of state aid granted in 2022 compared to 2021, EU member states continued to back companies affected by crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the Ukraine war, according to data released by the European Commission on Tuesday.
According to those data, in 2022, member states reported state aid of 228 billion euros for all objectives, including crisis measures connected to the coronavirus pandemic, the Ukraine war and other measures. It is the equivalent of 1.4% of EU GDP in 2022, and a drop by 34.8% compared to 2021, when state aid amounted to349.7billion euros.
Data also show that 33.6% of total support (76.65 billion euros) helped companies affected by the pandemic to ramian viable, while 17% (39.33 billion euros) corresponds to measures adopted to thwart the negative effects of the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
In Romania's case, data of the EU Executive show that overall expenses with state aid amounted to 4.2 billion euros and the first five state aid measures absorbed 55.9% of total expenses, that is 2.3 billion euros. The value of aid co-financed with EU funds in Romania corresponded to 353 million euros (8.4% of total expenses) and were concentrated mainly on regional development (48.2%).
When it comes to the type of state aid instruments, Romania used mainly direct grants (1.7 billion euros or 40% of all state aid), followed by guarantees (969.8 million euros or 23.1%) and others (736.6 million euros or 17.6%).
In 2022, expenses connected to the coronavirus pandemic in Romania amounted to 1.7 billion euros, 41.7% of all state aid, compared to an average of 33.6% at EU level. As for expenses meant to counteract the negative effects of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Romania's expenses amlunted to 182.3 million euros or 4.4% of state aid, compared to 17.2% at EU level.