Every industry is dependent on innovation, brought about by the skills of those who work in it. For an academic journal as our Quarterly this is likewise true. The difference however is that the latter depends so much more on external sources. The natural provider of such innovation has been the European Commission which in mid-2005 launched the well-known “State aid Action Plan” overhauling great chunks of secondary legislation in this field of competition law and creating a new approach to...

I. Introduction The present article deals with capital gains taxation of share profits1 and the methods of applying such taxation. There are different ways of applying such taxation. Depending on the methods used, i.e. taxation based on the accrual principle, the realisation principle or a hybrid of those two methods, such tax legislation may contravene EU State aid law. Prior to discussing such possibilities it will be helpful to try to explain what is meant by accrual basis capital gains taxat...

I. Introduction The application of European State aid rules on public funding of hospitals has always been one of the most sensitive issues dealt by the European Commission and the European Courts1. The provision of health care has always been considered to be part of the Member States’ very own responsibilities of universal coverage. Since health care issues are genuinely of substantial social and economic importance for public authorities, the scope of State aid control on these Services of ...

I. Introduction Following analysis focuses on the evaluation of the legality of the duty imposed by the Greek tax legislation on mobile network operators’ subscribers (with the term “subscribers” meaning all users of the various services/products provided by the mobile network operators, including mobile telephony services, internet services and added value services) under the scope of the EU State Aid rules. This evaluation is examined as an empirical example that raises the important iss...

The main purpose of this article is dealing with one of the greatest challenges of our time, climate change. The importance of such a matter cannot be understated since, according to the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate change is already having consequences on human and non-human beings. As an answer to worldwide warning, an international environmental treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (hereinafter, “UNFCCC”), was signed, in 19...

I. Introduction The concept of State aid, particularly in tax matters, has still not been well determined. This fact may be at least due to three main reasons. Firstly, because the wording of Article 107(1) TFEU allows a broad interpretation. Secondly, due to the heterogeneous nature of fiscal State aids that makes it difficult to draw up general rules which are valid for all cases. A paradigmatic example is the difference existing between a material selective measure and a geographical advantag...

I. Introduction On 2 December 2009, the Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) (ECJ)1 handed down its decision in C-89/08P Commission v Ireland and others. The case concerned a decision by the Commission that a series of tax exemptions granted by France, Ireland and Italy to the sole alumina manufacturer in each of those countries constituted new State aid, and was to be recovered. The General Court (CFI) subsequently ruled that the Commission had failed to give reasons for part of its decision and th...

I. Introduction The judgment handed down by the Court of Justice (“the Court”) in the “Fallimento Traghetti del Mediterraneo/ Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri”,1 makes the latest development of the lengthy judicial debate between Traghetti del Mediterraneo (TDM), on the one hand, and Tirrenia as well as the Italian Republic, on the other, in relation to the compensation for public service obligations granted to Tirrenia from 1976 to 1980 on the grounds of Law No. 684 of 20 December ...

I. Introduction In its judgment regarding Technische Glaswerke Ilmenau GMBH (TGI)1 (“the Judgment”), the ECJ reversed the finding of the General Court – at that time Court of First Instance – as regards the annulment of the Commission Decision of 28 May 2002 in procedure C 44/2001. The substantive question posed before the Court refers to the substantive rules governing access to documents in a State aid Commission file by interested parties other than the Member State concerned in the c...

I. Introduction In March 2010, the General Court issued two judgments in relation to investment fund contributions made by the German state (Land) of Hessen to Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (Helaba).2 In both cases, the Court found that the Commission had been correct in its application of the market economy investor principle (MEIP) when finding that the assets made available to Helaba to underpin its competitive business do not constitute State aid. The MEIP is a test for determini...