The Government, AMCU and SESAR discussed ways to speed up the adoption of the draft criteria for assessing State Aid in the field of civil aviation

The important role of the adoption of the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On approval of criteria for assessing the compatibility of State Aid in the field of civil aviation” in the process of European integration of Ukraine and the practice of applying the relevant legislation in EU countries. These issues were discussed during a joint meeting on January 24 by representatives of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the EU SESAR Project “Support to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine in the implementation of State Aid rules”, the Governmental Office for the Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Ministry of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine.

The AMCU approved the draft Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers “On approval of criteria for assessing the compatibility of State Aid in the field of civil aviation” at the end of April last year. Currently, it has been approved by all interested authorities, except for the Ministry of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine, which expressed some comments on the document.

“The AMCU previously sent the Ministry a reasoned answer regarding the possibility of considering or not considering its remarks. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss ways to speed up the approval of the specified document with the Ministry. The criteria were developed in view of the national legislation and European experience in fulfilling Ukraine's obligations under the Association Agreement. It is necessary to speed up the process of their adoption, so that the relevant obligations are fulfilled, and the rules of State Aid in the field of civil aviation correspond to similar rules in the EU”, Oksana Chabanyuk, Director of Department for State Aid Monitoring and Control of the AMCU, said during the meeting.

Her position was supported by the Head of the expert group on cooperation in the field of customs, financial policy, taxation and entrepreneurship of the Governmental Office for the Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Maryna Nelina.

“The President announced the goal of starting negotiations with the EU already this year. And in order to start negotiations, we need to demonstrate the irreversibility of our decision to join the European Union”, said the representative of the Governmental Office.

Team Leader of the SESAR Project, Stefan Sabau, emphasized the special importance of the criteria for State Aid in the field of civil aviation, because in Ukraine it has suffered significant losses as a result of hostilities.

“State Aid in the field of civil aviation is a particularly important issue. We see that a lot of aviation infrastructure was damaged and destroyed during the war. Regarding the application of State Aid criteria in practice, we should look at them from the point of view of the efficiency of the use of state resources. We must be sure that these criteria are the rules, following which every penny will be spent as efficiently as possible, and the saved funds will be directed to cover other expenses”, Stefan Sabau noted.

In his turn, Head of the Department of Aviation Infrastructure and Transportation of the Ministry of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine, Dmytro Kushpil, expressed readiness to resolve issues related to the approval of the Criteria project as soon as possible. Consultations on the final version of the draft document are currently ongoing.

The mentioned draft Resolution provides for an assessment of compatibility of State Aid, which is provided to undertakings with the aim of:

• promotion of aviation activities for airports and air carriers and customers of construction of infrastructure facilities;
• provision of services of general economic interest for airports and air carriers;
• State Aid for air carriers, which is of a social nature, to ensure the transportation of passengers by air transport.

AMCU cooperates with the SESAR project in the framework of the development of criteria for evaluating State Aid in various fields. The adoption of relevant rules is part of bringing Ukrainian legislation in the field of State Aid into compliance with EU standards.

We would like to remind you that the other day the Government adopted a resolution “On the approval of criteria for assessing the compatibility of State Aid to undertakings for the support of culture and the preservation of cultural heritage."