News

De minimis – application period extended, funding limit raised

After a long waiting period the change to the funding guideline has now been published according to which the upper funding limit per eligible vehicle has been raised from €1,400 to €2,000. In any case a requirement of the Federal Ministry of Finance states that 100% funding is not permitted because there is an “economic self interest” of the applicant. Therefore the funding is limited to 90% of the proven costs. In a concrete case this means that €2,222 in fundable measures must be proven per vehicle, in order that the net sum of €2,000 per vehicle can be completely distributed. Unfortunately it was not possible to double the current upper funding limit of €33,000 per company to €66,000, as the Federal Office for Goods Transport [BAG – Bundesamt für Güterverkehr] in the road haulage act [GüKG – Güterkraftverkehrsgesetz] did not have the formal authority to process funding applications from this EU special programme. The Federal Office for Goods Transport will refer to the changed funding conditions in the authorisation of de minimis measures. Until now in any case only a few de minimis applications have been provided with a notification. The holders of these notifications will be given the choice in writing to retain the previous funding notification and 100% funding on the basis of an upper vehicle funding of €1,400 or enforce a 90% funding according to the new conditions of €2,222/vehicle. The companies will hereby have to answer a form letter from the Federal Office for Goods Transport.
The deadline for de minimis applications will be extended until 30.06.2010. Thereby please note that the “first come, first served” process still applies. A late application for funds can therefore lead to the application being refused. Blank application forms with the new submission date are, however, not yet available on the Federal Office for Goods Transport website (www.bag.bund.de).