Fiona Wishlade was an invited speaker at a DG Competition workshop to launch the reform of the Regional Aid Guidelines on 8-9 March 2011.
The current guidelines expire at the end of 2013. The purpose of the workshop was to review Member State experiences of the current system and to gather initial information on how well the current guidelines function. All Member States were represented at the workshop, which drew on the experiences of both regional policymakers and national State aid control departments.
Fiona Wishlade's presentation took a historical perspective, looking at how the State aid rules have shaped regional development policy over the long term, and highlighting some of the key challenges which go beyond the scope of the regional aid guidelines.
Fiona's slides are available on request.