In March 2020 the European Commission adopted exceptional state aid rules in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Its goal is to enable member states to support their economy using aid measures, which under current state aid rules are either not possible to be issued at all or only after time consuming notification procedures. This so-called Temporary Framework1 is being presented as a significant tool with several possibilities such as aid for research and development projects and research infrastructures. Since its adoption, dozens of measures across the whole European Union have been notified, using different sections of the Temporary Framework according to their focus. This article is concerned with the practical use and impact of such sections regarding R&D aid, with the underlying questions as to what extent the presentation of the Temporary Framework is justified.
Simultaneously to the negotiating process the EU has also provided the pre-accession financial assistance to the EU candidate-countries. In this respect, every candidate-country with an ambitious goal of reaching a high development level for all of its regions and hoping to receive support from the structural funds must put a lot of effort into creating an efficient institutional framework that allows the successful management of future EU funding. Namely, the future institutional (full EU membership) ability of managing EU structural and cohesion funds is largely influenced by the capacity to manage the pre-accession assistance programmes. This paper focuses on the institutional challenge of establishing competent authorities at Slovenian national level with responsibility for co-ordination and management of EU regional issues. Accordingly, the main aim of this paper is to analyse the processes of managing the EU pre-accession assistance programmes in Slovenia. ; Simultaneously to the negotiating process the EU has also provided the pre-accession financial assistance to the EU candidate-countries. In this respect, every candidate-country with an ambitious goal of reaching a high development level for all of its regions and hoping to receive support from the structural funds must put a lot of effort into creating an efficient institutional framework that allows the successful management of future EU funding. Namely, the future institutional (full EU membership) ability of managing EU structural and cohesion funds is largely influenced by the capacity to manage the pre-accession assistance programmes. This paper focuses on the institutional challenge of establishing competent authorities at Slovenian national level with responsibility for co-ordination and management of EU regional issues. Accordingly, the main aim of this paper is to analyse the processes of managing the EU pre-accession assistance programmes in Slovenia.
