Article 25 Transparency and monitoring

On the entry into force of an aid scheme or the awarding of an ad-hoc aid, which has been exempted pursuant to this Regulation, the Member State shall forward to the Commission a summary of the information regarding such aid measure. This information shall be provided in electronic form via the established Commission IT application, in the form laid down in Annex I.

The Commission shall acknowledge the receipt of the above summary without delay.

The summaries provided by the Member States pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and on the Commission’s website.

Upon the entry into force of an aid scheme or the awarding of an ad-hoc aid, which has been exempted pursuant to this Regulation, the Member State concerned shall publish on the Internet the full text of such aid measure, indicating the criteria and conditions under which such aid is granted and the identity of the granting authority. The Member State concerned shall ensure that the full text of the aid measure is accessible on the Internet as long as the aid measure concerned is in force. The summary information provided by the Member State concerned pursuant to paragraph 1 shall specify an Internet address leading directly to the full text of the aid measure. This Internet address shall also be contained in the annual report submitted pursuant to paragraph 4.

When granting individual aid exempted pursuant to this Regulation, with the exception of aid taking the form of fiscal measures, the aid granting act shall contain an explicit reference to the specific provisions of this Regulation concerned by this act, to the national law which ensures respect of the relevant provisions of this Regulation and to the Internet address referred to in paragraph 2.

In accordance with Chapter III of Commission Regulation (EC) No 794/2004^f1, Member States shall compile a report in electronic form on the application of this Regulation in respect of each whole year or each part of the year during which this Regulation applies.

Member States shall maintain detailed records regarding any ad-hoc aid or individual aid granted under an aid scheme exempted under this Regulation. Such records shall contain all information necessary to establish that the conditions laid down in this Regulation, are fulfilled, including information on the status of any undertaking whose entitlement to aid or a bonus depends on its status as an SME, information on the incentive effect of aid and information making it possible to establish the precise amount of eligible costs for the purpose of applying this Regulation.

Records regarding individual aid shall be maintained for 10 years from the date on which the aid was granted. Records regarding an aid scheme shall be maintained for 10 years from the date on which the last aid was granted under such scheme.

The Commission shall regularly monitor aid measures of which it has been informed pursuant to paragraph 1.

On written request, the Member State concerned shall provide the Commission within the period fixed in the request, with all the information which the Commission considers necessary to monitor the application of this Regulation.

If such information is not provided within that period or a commonly agreed period, the Commission shall send a reminder setting a new deadline for the submission of the information. If, despite such reminder, the Member State concerned does not provide the information requested, the Commission may, after having provided the Member State concerned with the possibility to make its views known, adopt a decision stating that all future individual aid measures adopted on the basis of the scheme are to be notified to the Commission.