The rules controlling State aid and subsidies on the EU and the WTO level touch nearly every aspect of national law. Written by a team of experts from the judiciary, practice, academia, and officials, this book provides a thorough and analytic approach to this vital area of law.

The recent State Aid Modernization has decentralized the enforcement of State aid law. In particular, under the General Block Exemption Regulation a number of aid schemes do not require the preventive “check” by the European Commission, while national courts play a growing role in private enforcement of State aid law. This insightful book analyzes the enforcement of State aid law in the aftermath of the State Aid Modernization, identifying a number of emerging trends at the national and EU level.

This revised and updated Research Handbook on European State Aid Law brings together established academics and practitioners to provide a wide-ranging coverage of the field. Incorporating political science, economics and the law in its analysis, it provides a strong overview of the salient issues in State aid law and policy.

This volume analyses the concept of aid and examines fundamental questions concerning the scope of state aid law. It also draws a comparison with WTO provisions on subsidies and looks at EEA and applicant states' state aid regimes. It then focuses upon selected areas of state aid law and policy.

How has the evolution and transformation of the Common Market affected the legal concept of State aid? How has State aid adapted to the development of the European Union? These questions and more are answered in Juan Jorge Piernas López's examination of the historical, political, constitutional, and economical events that have affected the development of State aid in the EU. Examining three key, interwoven arguments, this book provides a richer understanding of current formulas which depict the concept of aid through the prism of policy and enforcement considerations. First, the book demonstrates that the concept of aid is a 'living instrument' that has been applied in accordance with the main policy priorities of the European Commission. Second, contrary to what has been affirmed in other literature, the evolution of this concept has been influenced by the broader advancement of the case law of the Court of Justice in different periods of the integration process. Third, the author contends that the study of the evolution of the concept of aid in light of policy and case law provides a holistic outlook valuable to the decision making process of difficult cases. In this regard, the book provides criteria to interpret and discuss cases including Sloman Neptun, Philip Morris, and Azores, beyond the analysis traditionally adopted in this field.

Recent years have seen the rise of EU State aid law as a crucial component of the European economic constitution. To date, however, the literature has neglected the contribution of this area of EU law to the internal market. This book seeks to fill this gap in our understanding of the economic constitution by exploring the significance of State aid law in addressing questions that go to the core of the internal market project. It does so by examining the case law relating to three different activities that Member States engage in: market participation, market regulation, and funding for Services of General Economic Interest. Each of these areas offers insights into fundamental questions surrounding the economic constitution, such as the separation between the State and the market, the scope for Member States to engage in regulatory competition, and the tension between market and nonmarket concerns.

Useful for anyone trying to understand and deal with matters of state aid, covering all relevant issues with regard to article 87 and other state aid articles of the EC Treaty, as well as the interpretation provided by the ECJ, and an up-to-date, exhaustive summary of the various types of EC law and soft law relevant to the topic.

This book investigates whether the European Commission (EC) has the mandate to legislate on direct taxation in sovereign states and ultimately questions whether the EC’s enforcement action in recent tax ruling cases, in the area of state aid, respects the rule of law.

The elements of infrastructure – roads, transportation, electricity, water, communications, schools, hospitals – are so ingrained in the fabric of daily life that few people give a second thought to who provides them, and how. Yet, they are controlled by an extensive and complex regulatory system. Moreover, the EU’s State aid modernization plan has made infrastructure a crucial aspect of competition law. How did EU State aid law turn into regulation on whether a city can build a new airport, or how it may operate a school? And what do the rules actually mean for infrastructure funding? These are the questions this book, the first comprehensive guide to EU State aid law in this key sector and a major contribution to the debate on the topic, seeks to answer. In its thorough review of the legal literature as well as relevant legislation and case law, this book covers such aspects of the infrastructure-State aid nexus as the following: – role of infrastructure in competition law; – infrastructure funding as aid and its compatibility with the internal market; – impact on land development and other ongoing activities; – sector-specific impact of State aid regulation on the design of infrastructure projects; – risk management; and – newer infrastructure sectors such as sports and cultural and healthcare projects. At many points in the presentation, the case-by-case analysis provides individual appraisals. In addition to focusing on the complex rules and how they have been interpreted in the decisional practice of the Commission and in the EU case law, this book provides deeply informed proposals for reform. This is a key work in a field of EU law that has developed and changed dramatically in recent years. It is sure to be of immeasurable value to practitioners and jurists in State aid law, competition law, and public procurement, as well as market actors (aid beneficiaries and competitors), policymakers, government officials, and business persons in these fields.

This new edition of an immensely useful book follows the same proven format as its predecessors, updates its analysis of case law with hundreds of new decisions by the courts of the European Union (EU), and thus remains the quickest source of reference for practitioners working with EU State aid matters. Following a highly organized sequence of subject headings, it presents extracts from all judgments and orders of both the Court of Justice and the General Court of the EU on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) rules on State aids. The book covers the relevant case law of both courts. There is additional material on many subjects, among which the concept of State aid, direct taxation and the State aid provisions, particularly on tax rulings, advantages for undertakings, selectivity, forms of State aid, procedures and unlawful aids. With this book, practitioners will quickly find relevant paragraphs and full citations regarding all issues raised by Articles 107–109 TFEU, including the following and much more: territorial scope of State aids; Article 107(1) European Commission and World Trade Organization Agreements; conditions for categorizing a national measure as State aid; free movement of goods; undertakings; private versus public investment; justification of selective measures; interstate trade and competition; tax measures; restructuring aids; procedural aspects; and locus standi of trade associations. In many areas, the extracts relate to points of the judgments which are not or only partially covered in official summaries. For accessibility of this case law, this updated edition of the preeminent analysis of EU State aid case law has no peers. Practitioners in this key area of EU competition law will find this book indispensable.