At a press conference this morning, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Economy, Etienne Schneider, accompanied by Secretary of State for the Economy, Francine Closener, Head of the Directorate for Infrastructure and Technology, Mario Grotz, and Senior Policy Advisor, Simone Polfer, presented an account of the last 6 years of aid given to the commercial sector as well as an outline of how this would continue for the next 5 years to 2020.
Broadly the highlights of the period 2009 – 2015 have been that a total of over €1.5 billion of investment and a further €0.5 billion of aid have been disbursed to 663 separate projects in the main areas of Research, Development and Innovation (RDI), Protection of the Environment and Regional Aid, with over 3,000 jobs created.
From now until 2020 the objectives are to continue to leverage state aid and investment to support the creation of employment and maintain the levels of aid; to meet the Luxembourgish objectives of “EU 2020” (for more details on these objectives see http://horizon2020.lu/Horizon-2020/What-is-Horizon-2020) and to avoid or reduce unnecessary administrative burden.
As well as cleaning up some of the existing legislation, the specific new measures being introduced in each of the main areas highlighted above are as follows:
- RDI: Investment in research infrastructure, advances, tax credits, equity contributions and tax breaks. Additionally Luxinnovation’s status will be upgraded to Funding Agency and an expected €200 million of aid will be made available over the period for RDI projects.
- Environment: The 2010 law relating to aid for the protection of the environment and correct usage of natural resources has been extended to cover all enterprises established in the Grand Duchy including not only industrial but also white collar and independent professions. Additionally, investment aid may be given on a case by case basis for low energy buildings, cleaning contaminated industrial sites, efficient heat and cooling systems, recycling and redeployment of waste and energy infrastructures. In all it is estimated that €125 million will be made available by way of aid between 2016 and 2020.
- Regional Aid: The goal of the regional aid packages is to provide incentives for investment in areas of (relatively) high economic disadvantage or unemployment. It is aimed at large companies and initial investments specifically for brand new activities in the eligible regions. Legislation provides for investments of up to €50 million where deemed to be appropriate, larger investments would require being put before parliament.
Time will tell how effective the new measures will actually be.
Photo by John Chalmers
