All de minimis aid granting authorities in Finland — including municipalities, wellbeing services counties and public undertakings — are subject to a mandatory registration obligation under EU Regulations 2023/2831 and 2023/2832. Aid that is not registered in the Commission’s eAidRegister system within the prescribed deadline risks being treated as unlawful, with recovery from the beneficiary — including interest — as the potential consequence. This article sets out what the new rules require, why they matter, and what granting authorities should do to ensure compliance.
The de minimis framework
State aid legislation restricts how public-sector entities, such as the central government, municipalities and public undertakings, may support businesses and other undertakings. The general prohibition on State aid, set out in Article 107(1) TFEU, is subject to a number of exemptions. One of the most widely used is the de minimis rule, which permits aid of modest amounts to be granted without prior notification to the Commission. The applicable framework is now set out in Regulation (EU) 2023/2831 (the General De Minimis Regulation) and Regulation (EU) 2023/2832 (the SGEI De Minimis Regulation), which entered into force on 1 January 2024 and replace the earlier Regulations 1407/2013 and 360/2012.
Under the General De Minimis Regulation, public support granted to a single undertaking must not exceed EUR 300,000 over any rolling three-year period. For undertakings providing services of general economic interest (SGEI undertakings), the ceiling under the SGEI De Minimis Regulation is EUR 750,000 over three years. The Commission takes the view that aid below these thresholds does not distort competition or affect trade between Member States and is therefore exempt from the prior notification obligation. It is important to note that the Regulations do not apply to all sectors: the primary production of agricultural products and the primary production and certain processing of fishery and aquaculture products are excluded from the scope of the General De Minimis Regulation. Separate sectoral rules apply in those areas.
De minimis aid in Finland
De minimis aid is widely used across Member States. In Finland, the number of individual grants is estimated at tens of thousands annually. At the local government level, de minimis aid has been a particularly common support instrument. Aid is most frequently granted by agencies such as Business Finland and state financing company Finnvera, as well as by municipalities and other public bodies.
The absence of a comprehensive monitoring system has, however, been a persistent problem. Municipalities, wellbeing services counties and other entities outside central government have not had access to the State’s business subsidy register. As a result, neither Finland nor the Commission have had a full picture of the total volume of de minimis aid granted in Finland, since systematic data collection was not previously required.
The registration obligation
Under the current Regulations, Member States are required to ensure that information on every de minimis aid grant is registered in a national or Union-level central register, regardless of the amount and regardless of whether the granting authority is a central government body or a municipality. The information must be registered within 20 working days of the date on which the aid is granted.
The information to be entered in the register must include the identity of the beneficiary, the amount and date of the aid, the granting authority, the aid instrument and the sector concerned (classified using the EU’s NACE classification of economic activities). Member States using a national register are also required to submit annual aggregated reports to the Commission. Finland has opted to use the Commission’s Union-level register – eAidRegister – rather than establishing a national register. As a consequence, the annual reporting obligation to the Commission does not apply to Finland.
At the national level, the registration obligation is implemented through the Act on the Application of Certain State Aid Rules of the European Community (300/2001), which sets out the obligation on aid granting authorities to use the Union-level central register.
Why does the registration obligation matter?
The significance of the registration obligation should not be underestimated. The Regulations make registration the primary mechanism for verifying compliance with the de minimis ceilings. Where aid has not been properly registered, there is a material risk that the granting authority will be unable to demonstrate compliance with the conditions for exemption from the State aid notification requirement. Under well-established case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, aid granted in breach of EU State aid rules is unlawful, and unlawful aid that is found to be incompatible with the internal market must be recovered from the beneficiary together with interest.
Compliance with the registration obligation is therefore not merely an administrative formality. In addition to avoiding the risk of recovery, registration enables the granting authority to verify that the applicable ceiling has not been exceeded, identify overlapping grants and maintain the required transparency over the use of public funds. It also enables the beneficiary to monitor its own cumulative de minimis aid position — previous grants can be verified directly from the register.
The registration obligation in practice
The Regulations leave it to Member States to decide how responsibility for registering aid is organised in practice. At the Union level, each Member State must designate a national authority responsible for user administration of the eAidRegister system. In Finland, this role has been assigned to the Employment, Development and Administration Centre (KEHA Centre). The KEHA Centre acts as the national system administrator and provides guidance and advice on use of the system.
Checklist for de minimis aid granting authorities
- Verify that the aid falls within the scope of the De Minimis Regulations — in particular, confirm that the beneficiary’s activities are not in a sector excluded from the scope of the General De Minimis Regulation (such as the primary production of agricultural products or fishery and aquaculture products).
- Until the eAidRegister covers a full three-year period, request a written or electronic declaration from the beneficiary setting out the de minimis aid it has received during the preceding three years under any applicable de minimis regulation. Once the register covers three years of data, this declaration requirement falls away and compliance can be verified directly from the register.
- Design the aid measure so that the conditions for de minimis aid are met — in particular, the applicable ceiling over any rolling three-year period. Note that specific calculation rules apply when aid is granted in a form other than a direct grant (for example, loans, guarantees, or interest rate subsidies).
- State clearly in the aid decision that the aid constitutes de minimis aid and identify the applicable Regulation, so that the beneficiary can, where necessary, disclose this information to other granting authorities.
- Register the aid in the Commission’s eAidRegister system within 20 working days of the date on which the aid is granted. Ensure that your organisation has registered as a user of the system through the KEHA Centre in advance.
- Retain all documents and records related to the aid decision for a period of 10 years from the date on which the aid was granted.
Future developments in State aid regulation
Further changes to State aid regulation are forthcoming. An ongoing legislative project concerns the ex officio recovery of State aid by national granting authorities. A government proposal (HE 95/2026), given by the Finnish Government to the Parliament at the end of the spring session, is intended to enter into force on 1 January 2027 and would empower Finnish authorities to initiate recovery of aid granted in breach of State aid rules without a prior Commission recovery decision – a significant extension of the national enforcement toolkit.
The members of our Competition & Public Procurement practice monitor these developments closely. If you have questions about the de minimis registration obligation, the scope of the Regulations or related State aid matters, we are available to assist.
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