Suur-Ameerika 1 / 10122 Tallinn / 611 3558 / [email protected] / www.rahandusministeerium.ee

registrikood 70000272

Ettevõtluse ja Innovatsiooni Sihtasutus

[email protected]

Abikava SA.106808 järelevalve

Alates 2006. aastast on Euroopa Komisjoni Konkurentsi Peadirektoraat (edaspidi komisjon)

teostanud järelevalvet liikmesriikide rakendatud riigiabi meetmete üle. Käesoleva aasta valimisse

kuulub Ettevõtluse ja Innovatsiooni Sihtasutuse 08.03.2023 korra „Küberturvalisuse taseme

kaardistamise ja arendamise toetamise tingimused ja kord“ alusel antav toetus ehk abikava

SA.106808 „Küberturvalisuse taseme kaardistamise ja arendamise toetus“, mida rakendab

Ettevõtluse ja Innovatsiooni Sihtasutus.

Järelevalve raames kontrollib komisjon abikava vastavust komisjoni määrusele (EL) nr 651/2014

ELi aluslepingu artiklite 107 ja 108 kohaldamise kohta, millega teatavat liiki abi tunnistatakse

siseturuga kokkusobivaks ((ELT L 187, 26.06.2014, lk 1).

Edastame Teile komisjoni kirja, palume vastata komisjoni küsimustele ning täita lisatud tabel ja

saata vastused Rahandusministeeriumile hiljemalt 30. juuliks.

Lugupidamisega

(allkirjastatud digitaalselt)

Kaur Kajak

halduspoliitika asekantsler

Lisa(d):

1. SA.106808.MX_RFI

2. SA.106808_MX_Annex to Letter

3. SA.106808.MX_language waiver template

Ljudmilla Sokolnikova 611 3360

[email protected]

Meie 07.07.2025 nr 12.1-1/3156-1

EUROPEAN COMMISSION DG Competition State aid: General Scrutiny and Enforcement R&D&I, IPCEI and Environment

Brussels,03/07/2025

COMP/H3/SH/bsz

comp(2025)7611322

Permanent Representation of

Estonia to the EU

Rue Guimard 11/13

1040 Bruxelles

E-Mail: [email protected]

Subject: Monitoring of block-exempted aid measures

SA.106808 (2025/MX) – Support for mapping and developing

cybersecurity levels

Dear Madam, dear Sir,

Pursuant to Article 108(1) TFEU1 "The Commission shall, in cooperation with Member

States, keep under constant review all systems of aid existing in those States".

Consequently, DG Competition carries out an ex post monitoring of a sample of aid

measures implemented by Member States.

The above-mentioned aid scheme "Support for mapping and developing cybersecurity

levels" has been chosen for monitoring. The monitoring of this aid scheme covers the

years that the scheme was applicable during the period 2022-2023 ("reference period"). It

is registered as SA.106808.MX.

DG Competition will examine whether the selected aid scheme respected the provisions

of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER)2 applicable during the reference

period.

According to the GBER3, in order to enable the Commission to monitor the aid scheme

exempted from notification, Member States shall maintain detailed records with the

information and supporting documentation necessary to establish that all the conditions

laid down in the GBER are fulfilled, and provide such records to the Commission upon

its request.

1 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 2 Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid

compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty, OJ L 187,

26.6.2014, p. 1, as amended. 3 Article 12 of Regulation 651/2014.

1. Legal basis

Your authorities are requested to provide the following information concerning the legal

basis of the selected State aid scheme:

(1) To confirm that the legal basis published on the website referred to in the

summary information sheet

(https://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/cases1/202312/SA_106808_C03C098

7-0500-C62F-8C4F-A11F920F2F52_7_1.pdf) is the legal basis of the scheme as

it applied during the reference period. If this is not the case, your authorities are

requested to provide the applicable legal basis. Your authorities are also requested

to provide a copy of the secondary law provisions implementing the scheme;

(2) To complete the annexed table, indicating where in the text of the legal basis the

relevant conditions and provisions of the aid measure can be found; and

(3) To indicate whether the scheme is still being applied or whether and when it

expired or was replaced by a successor scheme; in such instance, please indicate

the reference number of the successor scheme and provide the text of the legal

basis.

We would also recall that in case of non-compliance with the provisions of the GBER,

your authorities have the duty to recover any unlawful aid granted in line with the case

law of EU courts4.

Please provide us the contact details of the person(s) in case of questions with respect to

the reply to this request for information, including the e-mail address(es) and the phone

number(s).

The above mentioned information should reach the Commission within 20 working

days of the date of this letter.

In any correspondence, please mention the reference to this monitoring case, as provided

above in the subject SA. 106808.MX.

In order to facilitate the correspondence in relation to this monitoring case, we propose to

use English as the working language. Should Estonia agree to this, we kindly invite you

to complete the attached language waiver template and return a signed copy of it as soon

as possible.

The official in charge in DG Competition is Saskia HENDRIKS,

[email protected], + 32 229 54614.

Yours sincerely,

e-signed

Demos SPATHARIS

Head of Unit

4 Judgment of the Court of 5 March 2019, C-349/17, Eesti Pagar AS v. Ettevotluse Arendamise

Sihtasutus, ECLI:EU:C:2019:172; Judgment of the Court of 7 April 2022, joined cases C-102/21 and

C-103/21, Autonome Provinz Bozen, ECLI:EU:C:2022:272.

Enclosure 2 annexes: Table regarding the legal basis and language waiver template

LOGO MINISTER / PR [Place], [date]

ADDRESS

ADDRESSEE

Subject: State aid number SA. 106808.MX – Language waiver

In order to facilitate the correspondence between the Estonian government and the

Commission in relation to the State aid monitoring case SA. 106808.MX, the Estonian

government agrees exceptionally to waive its rights deriving from Art. 342 TFEU in

conjunction with Art. 3 of the EC Regulation 1/1958 and to use English as the working

language as well as having any Decision adopted and notified pursuant to Article 297 of the

Treaty in English language.

[formule de courtoisie]

[Signature]

[Name]

[Function]

In the table below, you will find a list of compatibility conditions and provisions which should be reflected in the legal basis or in secondary law

concerning the block-exempted aid measure under monitoring (Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014, OJ L 187, 26.6.2014, p. 1, as amended).

Please provide information, in short form, in the column "Where to find them in legal basis or secondary law?" by a reference to the relevant paragraph

and page number of the legal document, e.g. Art. 1, p. 3, Legal text; Paragraph 3, p. 5, Secondary law).

If a condition or provision is implicitly fulfilled i.e. it is not especially contained in the legal text of the aid measure, please give a short explanation where

it is established.

Where a condition is not applicable, please put "N/A" and give a short explanation.

A. Common provisions of application

General conditions and provisions of application Where to find them in legal basis or secondary

law?

Article 1 - Exclusion of certain activities and aids above a certain amount (§2)

Shall not apply to (for all Articles):

 Aid to export related activities;

 Aid contingent upon use of domestic over imported goods.

Shall not apply to (for Articles 18, 28 and 29):

 Aid schemes to SMEs and R&D&I aid schemes with an average annual State aid budget

exceeding EUR 150 million from six months after their entry into force. The GBER may

continue to apply for a longer period to any of these aid schemes after having assessed the

relevant evaluation plan notified by the Member State to the Commission, within 20

working days from the scheme's entry into force. Where the Commission has already

extended the application of this Regulation beyond the initial six months as regards such

schemes, Member States may decide to extend those schemes until the end of the period of

application of the GBER, provided that the Member State concerned has submitted an

evaluation report in line with the evaluation plan approved by the Commission;

 Any alterations of the schemes referred to above other than modifications which cannot

affect the compatibility of the aid scheme under the GBER or cannot significantly affect the

content of the approved evaluation plan.

Article 1- Exclusion of certain sectors (§3)

Shall not apply to (for all Articles):

 The processing and marketing of agricultural products* where the amount of aid is fixed on

the basis of the price or quantity of such products purchased from primary producers or put

on the market by the undertakings concerned; or where the aid is conditional on being partly

or entirely passed on to primary producers;

 Aid to facilitate the closure of uncompetitive coal mines (Council decision 2010/787).

Shall not apply to (for Article 18):

 Fishery and aquaculture* (as in Reg. 1379/2013).

* If an undertaking is also active in sectors that are within the scope of the GBER, the GBER

applies to aid granted in respect of these sectors provided that the Member State ensures that the

activities in the excluded sectors do not benefit from the aid

Article 1 - Exclusion of companies concerned by the Deggendorf rule (§4)

Shall not apply to:

 aid schemes which do not explicitly exclude the payment of individual aid, in favour of an

undertaking which is subject to an outstanding recovery order following a previous

Commission decision declaring an aid granted by the same Member State illegal and

incompatible with the internal market;

 ad hoc aid in favour of an undertaking as referred to in point a.

Article 1 - Exclusion of companies in difficulty (§4)

Shall not apply to aid to undertakings in difficulty:

by derogation: this Regulation applies to undertakings which were not in difficulty on

31 December 2019 but became undertakings in difficulty during the period from 1 January

2020 to 31 December 2021.

Article 1 - Exclusion of aid measures violating Union Law (§5)

Shall not apply to State aid measures, which entail, by themselves, by the conditions attached to

them or by their financing method a non-severable violation of Union law, in particular:

 aid measure where the grant of aid is subject to the obligation for the beneficiary to have its

headquarters or to be predominantly established in the relevant Member State. Requirement

for an establishment or branch in the aid granting Member State at the moment of payment

of the aid is however allowed;

 aid measure where the grant of aid is subject to the obligation to use nationally produced

goods or national services;

 aid measures restricting the possibility for the beneficiaries to exploit the research,

development and innovation results in other Member States.

Article 4 - Individual notification thresholds

Shall not apply to aid which exceeds (for Article 18):

 Consultancy in favour of SMEs: EUR 2 million per undertaking, per project;

Shall not apply to aid which exceeds (for Articles 28 and 29):

 Innovation aid for SMEs: EUR 5 million per undertaking, per project;

 For aid for process and organisational innovation: EUR 7,5 million per undertaking, per

project.

Shall not apply to aid which exceeds (for Article 31):

 Training: EUR 2 million per training project;

The thresholds shall not be circumvented by artificially splitting up the aid schemes or aid projects.

Article 5 – Transparency of aid

Only transparent aid (aid in respect of which it is possible to calculate precisely the gross grant

equivalent of the aid ex ante without any need to undertake a risk assessment) shall be exempted.

The following aid categories are considered to be transparent:

 Aid comprised in grants and interest rate subsidies

Article 6 - Incentive effect

Aid can only be exempted if incentive effect:

 Beneficiary submitted written application for aid to Member State, before work on the

project or activity starts, with at least the following information:

a. undertaking's name and size;

b. description of the project, including its start and end dates;

c. location of the project;

d. list of project costs;

e. type of aid (grant, loan, guarantee, repayable advance, equity injection or other) and amount

of public funding needed for the project

 Ad hoc aid to large enterprises; in addition to the above, Member State has verified before

granting the aid that the beneficiary provided documentation establishes one or more of the

following:

- a material increase in the scope of the project/activity due to the aid, or

- a material increase in the total amount spent by the beneficiary on the project/activity due to

the aid, or

- a material increase in the speed of completion of the project/activity concerned;

Article 7 - Eligible costs

For the purposes of calculating the aid intensity

 All figures shall be taken before any deduction of tax or other charge. The amounts of eligible

costs may be calculated in accordance with the simplified cost options (Reg 1303/2013, or Reg

2021/1060) whichever is applicable provided that the operation is at least partly financed

through a Union fund that allows the use of those simplified cost options and that the category

of costs is eligible according to the relevant exemption provision;

 Aid granted in a form other than a grant, the aid amount shall be the gross grant equivalent of

the aid.

 Aid payable in the future, including aid payable in several instalments shall be discounted to its

value when granting. Eligible costs shall also be discounted to their value at the time of granting

the aid. The discounting interest rate shall be the one which was applicable at the time of

granting the aid;

 Where aid is granted in the form of repayable advances which, in the absence of an accepted

methodology calculating their gross grant equivalent, are expressed as a percentage of the

eligible costs and the measure provides that in case of successful outcome of the project, as

defined on the basis of a reasonable and prudent hypothesis, the advances will be repaid with an

interest rate at least equal to the discount rate applicable at the moment the aid is granted, the

maximum aid intensities may be increased by 10 percentage points.

Eligible costs & documentation.

 Eligible costs must be supported by clear, specific, and contemporary documentary evidence.

 The amounts of eligible costs may be calculated in accordance with the simplified cost options

set out in Reg 1303/2013, provided that the operation is at least partially financed through a

Union fund that allows the use of those simplified cost options and that the category of costs is

eligible according to the relevant exemption provision.

Article 8 - Cumulation

 Total amount of aid (for the aided activity or project or undertaking) shall be taken into

account for thresholds and maximum aid intensities (§1);

 If Union funding (not under the control of the Member State) is combined with State aid, only

the latter shall be considered for determining whether notification thresholds and maximum aid

intensities or maximum aid amounts are respected, provided that the total amount of public

funding granted in relation to the same eligible costs does not exceed the most favourable

funding rate laid down in the applicable rules of Union law (§2);

 GBER exempted aid may be cumulated with any other State aid as long as the measures concern

different identifiable costs (§3a);

 No cumulation of exempted aid with any other aid on the same eligible costs, partly or fully

overlapping, if the result would exceed the highest aid intensity/amount applicable to this aid

under GBER (§3b)1;

 State aid exempted under the GBER shall not be cumulated with any de minimis aid in respect

of the same eligible costs if such cumulation would result in an aid intensity exceeding those

laid down in Chapter III of the GBER (§5).

Article 9 – Publication and information

 Publication on a comprehensive State aid website, at national or regional level of the following

(§1):

a. the summary information (see Article 11) or a link providing access to it;

b. the full text of each aid measure (see Article 11) or a link providing access to the full text;

c. the information on each individual aid award exceeding EUR 500 000 (see Annex III), or

for beneficiaries active in primary agricultural production (other than Section 2a) each

individual aid award for such production exceeding EUR 60 000 and for beneficiaries

active in the fishery and aquaculture sector (other than 2a) each individual aid award

exceeding EUR 30 000;

 The information referred to in paragraph 1(c) shall be organised and accessible in a standardised

manner, (see Annex III), and shall allow for effective search and download functions. The

information referred to in paragraph 1 shall be published within 6 months from the date the aid

was granted, or for aid in the form of tax advantage, within 1 year from the date the tax

declaration is due, and shall be available for at least 10 years from the date on which the aid was

granted (§4).

 Member States shall comply with the provisions of this Article at the latest within two years

after the entry into force of this Regulation (§6).

1 Financing provided to the final beneficiaries with support from the InvestEU Fund covered by Section 16 of Chapter III and the cost covered by this financing shall not

be considered for determining compliance with the cumulation provisions laid down in the first sentence of this point. Instead, the amount relevant for determining

compliance with the cumulation provisions of the first sentence of this point shall be calculated as follows. First, the nominal amount of the financing supported by the

InvestEU Fund shall be deducted from the total eligible project costs, obtaining the total remaining eligible costs; second, the maximum aid shall be calculated by

applying the relevant highest aid intensity or aid amount only to the total remaining eligible costs.

In cases of Articles for which the notification threshold is expressed as a maximum aid amount, the nominal amount of financing provided to the final beneficiaries with

the support from the InvestEU Fund shall also not be considered for determining whether the notification thresholds in Article 4 are respected.

Alternatively, for senior loans or guarantees on senior loans supported by the InvestEU Fund under Section 16 of Chapter III, the gross grant equivalent of the aid

entailed in such loans or guarantees provided to the final beneficiaries may be calculated in accordance with Article 5(2), point (b) or (c), as appropriate. This gross grant

equivalent of the aid can be used for ensuring, in line with the first sentence of this point, that cumulation with any other aid for the same identifiable eligible costs does

not result in exceeding the highest aid intensity or aid amount applicable to the aid under this Regulation or the relevant notification threshold under this Regulation.

Article 11- Reporting (info sheets)

 The following has to be sent to the Commission: (§1)

a. Summary information in the standardised formal laid down in Annex II, together with a

link providing access to the full text of the measure, including its amendments, within

20 working days following its entry into force.

b. Annual report (Reg (EC) 794/2004) in electronic form, on the application of this

Regulation, containing the information indicated in that Regulation, in respect of each

whole year or each part of the year during which this Regulation applies.

B. Specific conditions and provisions of application

Article 18

aid for consultancy to SMEs

Where to find them in legal basis or secondary law?

 Compatible and exempted from notification if General compatibility

conditions and conditions of this Article apply (§1)

 Aid intensity not to exceed 50 % of the eligible costs (§2)

 Eligible costs: consultancy services provided by external consultants

(§3)

 Services concerned are not continuous or periodic activities nor

related to usual operating costs (e.g. routine tax, regular legal or

advertising services) (§4)

Article 28

Innovation aid for SMEs

Where to find them in legal basis or secondary law?

 Compatible and exempted from notification if general compatibility

conditions (Chapter I) and conditions of this Article apply (§1)

 Eligible costs (§2):

a. costs for obtaining, validating and defending patents and other

intangible assets;

b. costs for secondment of highly qualified personnel from a

research and knowledge-dissemination organization or a large

enterprise, working on research, development and innovation

activities in a newly created function within the beneficiary and

not replacing other personnel;

c. costs for innovation advisory and support services.

 Aid intensity must not exceed 50 % of the eligible costs (§3).

 In the particular case of aid for innovation advisory and support

services the aid intensity can be increased up to 100 % of the eligible

costs provided that the total amount of aid for innovation advisory and

support services does not exceed EUR 200 000 per undertaking within

any three year period (§4).

Article 29

Aid for process and organisational innovation

Where to find them in legal basis or secondary law?

 Compatible and exempted from notification if general compatibility

conditions (Chapter I) and conditions of this Article apply (§1)

 Aid to large undertakings only if they effectively collaborate with

SMEs in the aided activity and the collaborating SMEs incur at least

30 % of the total eligible costs (§2)

 Eligible costs (§3):

a. Personnel costs;

b. Costs of instruments, equipment, buildings and land to the extent and

for the period used for the project;

c. Costs of contractual research, knowledge and patents bought or

licensed from outside sources at arm's length conditions;

d. Additional overheads and other operating costs, including costs of

materials, supplies and similar products, incurred directly as a result of

the project

 Aid intensity must not exceed 15 % of the eligible costs for large

undertakings and 50 % of the eligible costs for SMEs (§4).

Article 31

training aid

Where to find them in legal basis or secondary law?

Compatible and exempted from notification if General compatibility

conditions and conditions of this Article apply (§1);

 Aid shall not be granted for training which undertakings carry out to

comply with national mandatory standards on training (§2);

 Eligible costs (§3):

a. trainers' personnel costs, for the hours during which the

trainers participate in the training;

b. trainers' and trainees' operating costs directly relating to the

training project such as travel expenses, accommodation

costs, materials and supplies directly related to the project,

depreciation of tools and equipment, to the extent that they

are used exclusively for the training project;

c. costs of advisory services linked to the training project;

d. trainees' personnel costs and general indirect costs

(administrative costs, rent, overheads) for the hours during

which the trainees participate in the training.

 Aid intensity; shall not exceed 50 % of the eligible costs. It may be

increased, up to a maximum aid intensity of 70 % of the eligible costs, as

follows (§4):

a. by 10 percentage points if the training is given to workers

with disabilities or disadvantaged workers;

b. by 10 percentage points if the aid is granted to medium-

sized enterprises and by 20 percentage points if the aid is

granted to small enterprises.

 Where the aid is granted in the maritime transport sector, the aid

intensity may be increased to 100 % of the eligible costs provided that the

following conditions are met (§5):

a. the trainees are not active members of the crew but are supernumerary

on board; and

b. the training is carried out on board of ships entered in Union registers.