The European Commission blocks state aid for the MAN Trucks plant in Niepołomice

Support for the MAN Trucks plant in Niepołomice includes PLN 10.7 million in subsidies and PLN 105.6 million in CIT exemption. The money was to be used to expand the production capacity of a factory operating in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.

The region could benefit from regional aid under European Union regulations.

However, in the middle of last year, the EC initiated detailed proceedings in the case. The procedure checked, among other things, whether the amount of aid was proportional to the investment needs. In accordance with EU rules, public support should be limited to the minimum necessary to encourage the company to locate investments in a region requiring economic development.

Brussels also determined whether MAN would decide to expand the plant in Niepołomice also without state support. This is the so-called incentive effect, which is one of the key conditions for the admissibility of public aid.

"The collected evidence did not indicate that without this support, MAN would have decided to invest in another location," the EC said in a statement.

According to him, Poland had not demonstrated that the proposed aid was limited to the minimum necessary and was therefore not proportionate.

"Since public support did not have a real incentive effect - as it did not effectively induce MAN Trucks to invest in a specific region (Lesser Poland Voivodeship) - and, moreover, its amount was not proportional, this aid is inconsistent with EU state aid rules. Therefore, Poland cannot grant this aid," the EC said.

One of the most important MAN plants

The factory, launched in 2007, is MAN's largest production plant. About 3.85 thousand people work there. people - about 3 thousand MAN employs directly, and the logistics company BCUBE employs nearly 800.