EU: Commission approves Slovakia’s €125 million aid to Jaguar Land Rover

The European Commission has concluded that Slovakia’s €125 million investment aid to Jaguar Land Rover is in line with EU State aid rules.

Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner in charge of competition policy, said: “Our investigation confirmed that Slovakia’s €125 million public support to Jaguar Land Rover for its project to build a new car plant in the region of Nitra is in line with our State aid rules. Our investigation revealed that the aid was necessary for Jaguar Land Rover to invest in Europe rather than in Mexico. We also found that the measure will contribute to job creation and to the economic development of a disadvantaged region without unduly distorting competition.”

Jaguar Land Rover is investing €1.4 billion to build a car manufacturing facility in the region of Nitra (Slovakia), an area eligible for regional aid under EU State aid rules (Art. 107(3)(a) of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union). The plant is due to have a production capacity of 150,000 cars per year. The project is expected to create about 3,000 direct jobs.

Slovakia notified the Commission of its plans to grant €125 million of public support for the project. This represents the maximum aid that can be granted for such a project under the Commission’s Guidelines on Regional State Aid for 2014-2020, which enable Member States to support economic development and employment in the EU’s less developed regions and to foster regional cohesion in the Single Market.

The Commission’s in-depth investigation opened in May 2017 confirmed that, when analyzing in 2015 where to build the new car plant, Jaguar Land Rover considered several locations both in the European Economic Area (EEA) and in North America. Nitra was eventually selected as the preferred European location, while a city in Mexico was identified as the preferred alternative location in North America. The Commission’s investigation established that without the investment aid, the project would not have been carried out in Europe but in Mexico.

Full contact: European Commission

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