Article 2 Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation:

1. (a)

   ‘aid’ means any measure fulfilling all the criteria laid down in Article 87(1) of the Treaty;

2. (b)

   ‘small and medium-sized enterprises’ means enterprises as defined in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 70/2001;

3. (c)

   ‘gross aid intensity’ means the aid amount expressed as a percentage of the relevant costs. All figures used shall be taken before any deduction for direct taxation. Where aid is awarded in a form other than a grant, the aid amount shall be the grant equivalent of the aid. Aid payable in several instalments shall be discounted to its value at the moment of granting. The interest rate to be used for discounting purposes and for calculating the aid amount in a soft loan shall be the reference rate applicable at the time of grant;

4. (d)

   ‘net aid intensity’ means the discounted aid amount net of tax expressed as a percentage of the relevant costs;

5. (e)

   ‘number of employees’ means the number of annual working units (AWU), namely the number of persons employed full time in one year, part-time and seasonal work being AWU fractions;

6. (f)

   ‘disadvantaged worker’ means any person who belongs to a category which has difficulty entering the labour market without assistance, namely a person meeting at least one of the following criteria:

   1. (i)

      any person who is under 25 or is within two years after completing full-time education and who has not previously obtained his or her first regular paid employment;

   2. (ii)

      any migrant worker who moves or has moved within the Community or becomes resident in the Community to take up work;

   3. (iii)

      any person who is a member of an ethnic minority within a Member State and who requires development of his or her linguistic, vocational training or work experience profile to enhance prospects of gaining access to stable employment;

   4. (iv)

      any person who wishes to enter or to re-enter working life and who has been absent both from work and from education for at least two years, and particularly any person who gave up work on account of the difficulty of reconciling his or her working life and family life;

   5. (v)

      any person living as a single adult looking after a child or children;

   6. (vi)

      any person who has not attained an upper secondary educational qualification or its equivalent, who does not have a job or who is losing his or her job;

   7. (vii)

      any person older than 50, who does not have a job or who is losing his or her job;

   8. (viii)

      any long-term unemployed person, i.e. any person who has been unemployed for 12 of the previous 16 months, or six of the previous eight months in the case of persons under 25;

   9. (ix)

      any person recognised to be or to have been an addict in accordance with national law;

   10. (x)

       any person who has not obtained his or her first regular paid employment since beginning a period of imprisonment or other penal measure;

   11. (xi)

       any woman in a NUTS II geographical area where average unemployment has exceeded 100 % of the Community average for at least two calendar years and where female unemployment has exceeded 150 % of the male unemployment rate in the area concerned for at least two of the past three calendar years;

7. (g)

   ‘disabled worker’ means any person either:

   1. (i)

      recognised as disabled under national law; or

   2. (ii)

      having a recognised, serious, physical, mental or psychological impairment;

8. (h)

   ‘sheltered employment’ means employment in an establishment where at least 50 % of the employees are disabled workers who are unable to take up work in the open labour market;

9. (i)

   ‘wage cost’ comprises the following components actually payable by the beneficiary of the State aid in respect of the employment concerned:

   1. (i)

      the gross wage, i.e. before tax; and

   2. (ii)

      the compulsory social security contributions.

10. (j)

    a job is ‘linked to the carrying-out of a project of investment’ if it concerns the activity to which the investment relates and if it is created within three years of the investment's completion. During this period, the jobs created following an increase in the utilisation rate of the capacity created by the investment are also linked to the investment;

11. (k)

    ‘investment in tangible assets’ means an investment in fixed physical assets relating to the creation of a new establishment, the extension of an existing establishment, or the engagement in an activity involving a fundamental change in the product or production process of an existing establishment (in particular through rationalisation, diversification or modernisation). An investment in fixed assets undertaken in the form of the takeover of an establishment which has closed or which would have closed had it not been purchased shall also be regarded as tangible investment;

12. (l)

    ‘investment in intangible assets’ means investment in transfer of technology by the acquisition of patent rights, licences, know-how or unpatented technical knowledge.