State Aid Notification Procedures
Procedure for notification of State aid and SANI
Generally Member States are required to notify the Commission of any plan to grant or alter State Aid – unless it is of a type exempted from notification by a legal regulation - and they are not allowed to put such aid into effect unless and until the Commission has approved it.
Any State Aid which is granted in the absence of Commission approval or exemption by regulation is automatically classified as unlawful aid.
State Aid Notification Interactive (SANI)
In order to notify an aid project, the Commission has implemented an electronic notification form to be completed on the State Aid Notification Interactive (SANI) website and submitted to the Commission for State Aid consideration via the State aid branch.
To be registered on SANI, please contact the State aid branch. Please also see the User manual Version II of SANI available to guide you through the SANI process
Please note that the Commission expects all Member States to submit all notifications including general block exemption summary information sheet via SANI.
Notification Documents and Forms
The Standard Notification Form (Part 1) in SANI has to be completed online. Please note that you will need to complete the online Part II section of SANI for summary information to be published in the Official Journal.
The Supplementary Information Forms should be completed in their word document format and uploaded onto the Part III section of SANI.
State Aid Procedural Reform
The Best Practices Code is based on a joint commitment of the Commission and the Member States. On the one hand, the Commission will offer pre-notification contacts on a more regular basis, to enhance the quality and completeness of notifications, with the Commission also aiming to group its requests for information. On the other hand, there is the expectation that Member States should respond with greater speed and completeness to case-related requests made by the Commission. The Best Practices Code also aims at improving the procedure for dealing with complaints, including indicative deadlines and better information of complainants.
The Simplified Procedure looks to improve the Commission's treatment of straightforward cases, such as those that are clearly in line with existing horizontal instruments or established Commission decision-making practice. The Commission wants to ensure that clearly compatible aid gets approved within one month when Member States provide a complete notification. To this effect, the Notice also includes an illustrative list of aid measures, including certain aids for SMEs, environmental aid, innovation aid and rescue and restructuring aid, which are in principle suitable for simplified treatment.
