By 23 November 2010, DG Competition and other State aid Directorate-Generals will introduce a new numbering system for State aid cases registered with the Commission.

Up until now the Commission identified State aid proceedings by procedural step composed of the procedure code (e.g. N for notification, NN for non notified aid), followed by a number and the year when the procedure was registered i.e. opened. In instances where the Commission went through a number of procedures, a different code, number and year of opening was given in each step.

In order to improve access to State aid information and to make transparency better, the new numbering system will identify a State aid case by one single number, prefixed by SA, e.g. SA.12345. Under that number, all procedural steps will be included and where necessary shown as additional information in the case search tool.

In practice:

State aid proceedings which started prior this new numbering system will continue to be identified under their number as published in the Official Journal but will already indicate the new single number.
Cases which have been closed will not be identified by the single number.
New cases registered after 23 November 2010, will receive only the new single number.