State Aid Scoreboard spring 2006 update

This update of the State aid Scoreboard aims to present the State aid situation in the current Acceding Countries (Bulgaria and Romania). It also provides an overview in relation to State aid in the Candidate countries (Croatia, Turkey and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and in the Potential Candidate Countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244). It draws on material provided by Acceding Countries in the context of a major inventory and data gathering exercise in 2005 as well as the annual reports on State aid transmitted by the Acceding, Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries in accordance with Europe Agreements or Stabilization and Association Agreements.

This spring 2006 update of the Scoreboard is divided into four main parts. Part One focuses on enlargement and has three sections: Acceding Countries, Candidate Countries and Potential Candidate Countries. The section on Acceding Countries attempts, with all the necessary caveats, to compare the State aid amounts in Bulgaria and Romania in 2002-2004 with the average of new Member States and EU-25. It presents the overall level of State aid, the sectors to which aid is directed and the use of various aid instruments.