Leaseurope publishes guidance on schemes supporting investment in leasable assets

Every year, hundreds of millions of euros of investment in Europe using leasing is supported by schemes operated by national authorities and the European Investment Bank Group.  The support can be in the form of subsidies or grants, tax allowances, and risk support for lending to small and medium-sized businesses.

Despite the many success stories of relatively small amounts of state support enabling substantial amounts of investment, too often technical details in the European State Aid rules, including the General Block Exemption Regulations (GBER), get in the way of support being offered through leasing.

To assist Leaseurope’s member associations in their discussions with national governments and public authorities regarding schemes for supporting investment in assets that can be leased, Leaseurope has prepared a new ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ guide to Leasing and State Aid. The aim is to show how existing European State Aid regulations, including the revised General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) expected to be implemented in 2027, apply to schemes involving leasing.

The Q&A guide is intended to help ensure that any restrictions on the use of leasing based on regulations, including the GBER, should be applied only to the relevant type of aid, and it should not be extended unnecessarily to other types of aid.

The new Q&A guide, prepared by Leaseurope’s Legal Committee, has been distributed to Leaseurope’s 43 member associations and is available in the members’ section of the Leaseurope website.

The Q&A guide explains how the various EU State Aid categories -as allowed by the rules- can be used for leasing to different extents. In addition, it includes the position of Leaseurope explaining why further changes to the EU rules would be in the public interest. Leaseurope believes EU state aid rules should ensure:

• Neutrality of investment support measures and tax benefits between loans that are used to purchase assets and leases that are often economically equivalent, regardless of the legal status of contracts that vary between Member States under national rules.
• Freedom of choice in financing is essential for SMEs to align investments with their business model and cash-flow requirements. Public support schemes should accordingly observe the principle of financing neutrality, ensuring that leasing is not disadvantaged relative to ownership or loan-based financing.
• Access to investment support measures, including grants and risk support, wherever it can be reliably demonstrated that the lessee, not the lessor, is the economic beneficiary.
• Access to investment support measures for the duration of contracts, rather than limiting access to contracts that last for the full life of the asset.
• Access to investment support measures based on the economic use and control of the asset rather than on the legal ownership.