horizontal aid is a term referring to aid with horizontal objectives, which is neither regional nor sectoral in scope, such as aid to promote small and medium-sized enterprises, research and development, environmental protection, to create new employment or for rescuing/restructuring firms in difficulty
In 1999 state aid to manufacturing industry and service sectors has been provided in pursuance of the following objectives:
Horizontal aid:
- environment protection;
- support to export activities (the funds to exporting companies have been released from the Export Promotion Fund. Nevertheless, they have not been used for direct export subsidies; such funds have been rather destined to improve the quality of the product released from the manufacturing companies, to draft business plans for the companies, etc.);
- rescue and restructuring of enterprises.
Aid intended to support definite sectors (sectoral aid):
- ship building;
- other sectors of economy.
Regional aid.
While grouping-up the state aid in terms of certain objectives to be pursued, it is important to make a decision as to which objective is the most crucial. In some cases the state aid provided to research and development may be assigned to the scientific research, development and innovation sector. In other cases it is involved under the group of state aid to SMEs. Besides, even the most critical objective of the state aid provided fails to reflect the actual situation that has developed: for instance, the aid provided to the scientific research may be regarded as the aid to so-called sensitive (vulnerable) sectors.
