The European Commission has published the 2024 State aid Scoreboard, offering a detailed overview of State aid expenditures in the EU in 2023. While overall spending decreased to €186.78 billion in 2023 from €243.27 billion in 2022, member states directed 73% of funds toward EU policy objectives such as environmental protection, energy savings, research, development, innovation, and regional development. In 2022, this share was 49%. The total amount of aid for these key objectives rose to €136.78 billion from €119.98 billion.

The significant reductions in spending were due to the phasing out of crisis aid aimed at mitigating the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This indicates that State aid expenditures entered a normalization phase in 2023.

The State aid Scoreboard, based on member states reports, shows in particular that in 2023:

• Member states reported approximately €186.78 billion in total State aid expenditure, corresponding to 1.09% of the 2023 EU GDP and representing a 23% reduction compared to 2022, when total expenditure was €243.27 billion. Member states focused on supporting companies to achieve key long-term EU priorities and significantly reduced crisis aid granted in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. EU member states spent a total of €136.78 billion on State aid for key EU priorities, or 0.8% of EU GDP, representing a 14% increase compared to 2022, when the expenditure for these measures was €119.98 billion.
• Environmental protection and energy savings were the policy objectives on which member states spent by far the most in 2023 (€55.32 billion, accounting for around 30% of overall State aid expenditure). Remedying a serious disturbance in the economy was the second policy objective, accounting for around 25% of overall EU State aid expenditure.
• Measures approved under the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF) to counterbalance the negative effects of Russias war against Ukraine on the economy and to foster the transition towards a net-zero economy accounted for €39.45 billion (21% of State aid spending and 0.23% of EU GDP)
• The reduction in 2023 State aid expenditure was driven by the phase-out of measures adopted to mitigate the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2023, this type of aid expenditure dropped to 0.06% of EU GDP. The expenditure was only a relatively small part of the budget of crisis measures approved: 34% for COVID-19 support and 19% for all TCTF measures.
• The share of block-exempted measures continues to rise. Member states implemented 2,105 new measures under the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), 690 under the Agricultural Block Exemption Regulation (ABER), and 30 under the Fishery Block Exemption Regulation (FIBER) in 2023. This altogether corresponds to 88% of the total number of new State aid measures and 93% of all new State aid measures excluding crisis aid. The total amount of State aid spent under the block exemptions was €70.53 billion (around 38% of total expenditure in 2023).

Background

This 2024 edition of the State aid Scoreboard includes six special focus points, namely State aid measures supporting the economy in mitigating the impact of Russias war against Ukraine and fostering the transition to a net-zero economy; State aid provided in the context of the coronavirus crisis; block-exempted State aid expenditure, State aid for energy and environmental protection, renewables, and energy savings; deployment of broadband networks; industrial innovation and clean tech manufacturing.

To have a better overview of the aid actually granted under the two crisis frameworks, the Commission conducted periodic surveys to gather information from member states. The results are summarized in a series of policy briefs available here.

For More Information

The annexes of the State aid Scoreboard provide additional illustrative materials to allow a more informed reading of the 2024 Scoreboard results. State aid expenditure data gathered by DG Competition is also available on its data repository webpage on the Competition website. More information on the State aid Scoreboard, including earlier Scoreboards, can be found here.