Apart from the well publicised Diamond Jubilee, this year likewise sees a much more humble anniversary, which is the 10th birthday of this Journal. Being the one who – together with Wolfgang Andreae – founded it back in 2002, there is the luring temptation to start revelling about the past, go through the articles published and the topics covered over the years and possibly analyse their real or fictitious impact on the status quo of EU State aid control. Contrary to this, I feel that a much...

It has taken local and regional authorities quite a while to “get on the map” of State Aid, that is, to become a serious interlocutor of the European Commission and a political player able to have an impact on legislation. Things have changed since the years 2003 to 2005 mainly for four reasons: Firstly. The concept of competition has given rise to problems for local and regional authorities in the past. They have often opted for a timid wait-and-see approach, rather than proposing instrumen...

I. Introduction Article 107(1) TFEU “prohibits State aid ‘favouring certain undertakings or the production of certain goods’, that is to say, selective aid”.1 In the context of the qualification of a measure as State Aid, this is known as the requirement that a selective advantage be granted (hereafter the requirement of “selectivity” or of “specificity”). According to a well-established case-law, it is a constituent factor in the concept of State Aid.2 While this requirement see...

I. Introduction On 20 December 2011 the Commission adopted a new package of State aid rules for services of general economic interest (SGEI). These instruments entered into force on 31 January 2012.1 This reform had been preceded by a wide consultation process first launched on 23 March 2011 with the adoption of a Communication2 setting out the two key principles on which the Commission intended to base the revision: clarification and a diversified, proportionate approach.3 The first objective, ...

I. Introduction Private Enforcement of State aid law has not only become a widely discussed topic and an obviously commonly accepted notion1 but nevertheless still raises many questions, as demonstrated by the recent judgments of the German Bundesgerichtshof (BGH)2 and the Austrian Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme Court, OGH)3 concerning the claim of competitors of the beneficiaries of illegal State aid under the national Code against Unfair Competition4 that have attracted great attention. These d...

I. Introduction Today, the EU’s rules on R&D&I-State aid are at a crossroads. The current Community framework for State aid for research and development and innovation1 (the ‘Framework’) is more than halfway through its validity period and its revision has commenced. Moreover, the Commission has announced a modernization of its entire set of material and procedural State aid rules. This article has a threefold purpose: First, it invites you to look back at where the current R&D&I-State aid...

I. State aid prohibition under EU law The prohibition of State aid under EU law is laid down in Article 107 paragraph 1 TFEU: “Save as otherwise provided in the Treaties, any aid granted by a Member State or through State resources in any form whatsoever which distorts or threatens to distort competition by favouring certain undertakings or the production of certain goods shall, in so far as it affects trade between Member States, be incompatible with the internal market.” According to the c...

Commission & Kingdom of Spain v Government EStAL 2|2012 ernment of Gibraltar & UK: Annotation 443 I. Introduction By its landmark judgment delivered on 15 November 20111 in joined cases C-106/09P and C-107/09P, European Commission and Kingdom of Spain v. Government of Gibraltar and United Kingdom, the Court of Justice (hereinafter “the ECJ”) has provided the most significant illustration to date of the fundamental notion of selectivity in State aid review of business tax measures; a point of...

I. Introduction On 8 September 2011 the Court of Justice (“the Court”) handed down its judgment in the joined cases concerning the Italian tax regime providing exemptions for producers’ and workers’ cooperative societies.1 Upon a request for preliminary ruling from the Corte Suprema di Cassazione – before which appeals concerning the application of tax exemptions granted to producers’ and workers’ cooperative societies are still pending – the Court was called to give its interpre...

This case arose from a decision of the Italian authorities to extend an existing regional aid scheme – a social security concession for the south of Italy – to the cities of Chioggia and Venice in the north, an area partly eligible for regional aid on the basis of Article 107(3)(c). This measure was not notified to the Commission in advance and, following an investigative procedure, the Commission reached a decision requiring the recovery of aid with some exceptions. The recovery decision wa...

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