The European Commission has approved €733bn in state support since March 2022 for businesses affected by the war in Ukraine and the green transition, an amount superseded in recent years only by subsidies approved during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Germany accounts for almost half of total EU state aid funding approved under a temporary crisis scheme introduced in 2022 to shield economies from the war in Ukraine and to support green investments, according to commission figures seen by the Financial Times. A total of €90bn of the approved funding was granted in 2022.
The subsidies are lower than the record state support granted of almost €900bn, out of more than €3tn in approved Covid spending, in 2021. But EU diplomats in smaller countries have criticised the trend of continually relaxing state aid rules in emergencies, which they say favours bigger economies that can afford to offer such support to their businesses.