Article 2 Definitions

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

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

‘initial investment’ means:

1. (i)

   an investment in material and immaterial assets relating to the setting-up of a new establishment, the extension of an existing establishment, diversification of the output of an establishment into new additional products or a fundamental change in the overall production process of an existing establishment; or

2. (ii)

   the acquisition of the capital assets directly linked to an establishment, where the establishment has closed or would have closed had it not been purchased, and the assets are bought by an independent investor.

   The sole acquisition of the shares of an undertaking does not constitute initial investment;

‘ad hoc aid’ means individual aid that is not awarded on the basis of an aid scheme;

‘material assets’ means assets relating to land, buildings and plant/machinery;

‘immaterial assets’ means assets entailed by the transfer of technology through the acquisition of patent rights, licences, know-how or unpatented technical knowledge;

‘large investment project’ means an initial investment in capital assets with an eligible expenditure above EUR 50 million, calculated at prices and exchange rates on the date when the aid is granted; a large investment project will be considered to be a single investment project when the initial investment is undertaken within a period of three years by the same undertaking or undertakings and consists of fixed assets combined in an economically indivisible way;

‘aid intensity in present gross grant equivalent (GGE)’ means the discounted value of the aid expressed as a percentage of the discounted value of the eligible costs;

‘transparent regional investment aid schemes’ means regional investment aid schemes in which it is possible to calculate precisely the Gross grant equivalent as a percentage of eligible expenditure ex ante without need to undertake a risk assessment (for example schemes which use grants, interest rate subsidies, capped fiscal measures);

‘start of work’ means either the start of construction work or the first legally binding commitment to order equipment, excluding preliminary feasibility studies, whichever is the earlier;

‘job creation’ means a net increase in the number of annual labour units (ALU) directly employed in a particular establishment compared with the average over the previous 12 months; ALU are the number of persons employed full time in one year, part-time and seasonal work being ALU fractions;

‘wage cost’ means the total amount actually payable by the beneficiary of the aid in respect of the employment concerned, comprising the gross wage, before tax, and the compulsory contributions such as social security charges;

‘jobs directly created by an investment project’ means jobs concerning the activity to which the investment relates and created within three years of completion of the investment, including jobs created following an increase in the utilisation rate of the capacity created by the investment;

‘agricultural product’ means:

1. (i)

   the products listed in Annex I of the Treaty, except fishery and acquaculture products covered by Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000^f1;

2. (ii)

   products falling under CN codes 4502, 4503 and 4504 (cork products);

3. (iii)

   products intended to imitate or substitute milk and milk products, as referred to in Article 3(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 1898/87;

‘products intended to imitate or substitute milk and milk products’ mean products which could be confused with milk and/or milk products but whose composition differs from such products in that they contain fat and/or protein of non-milk origin with or without protein derived from milk (‘products other than milk products’ as referred to in Article 3(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 1898/87);

‘processing of agricultural products’ means any operation on an agricultural product resulting in a product which is also an agricultural product, except on-farm activities necessary for preparing an animal or plant product for the first sale;

‘marketing of an agricultural product’ means holding or displaying with a view to sale, offering for sale, delivery or any other manner of placing on the market, except the first sale by a primary producer to resellers and processors and any activity preparing a product for such first sale; a sale by a farmer to final consumers shall only be considered as marketing if it takes places in separate premises reserved for that purpose;

‘tourism activities’ means the following business activities in terms of NACE Rev. 1.1^f2:

1. (i)

   NACE 55: Hotels and restaurants;

2. (ii)

   NACE 63.3: Activities of travel agencies and tour operators, tourist assistance activities;

3. (iii)

   NACE 92: Recreational, cultural and sporting activities.