General Overview
State Aid Law and Information

State Aid

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The Member States of the European Union grant large amounts of subsidies to their industries and regions. Public subsidies of this kind are an important instrument for achieving financial stability, economic growth, competitiveness, social and regional cohesion, environmental protection or heritage conservation.

However, subsidies can also cause distortion to trade and competition. The granting of subsidies contradicts a fundamental objective of European Union, which is to eliminate distortion of competition within the internal market. For this reason the Treaty declares subsidies which are classified as state aid to be incompatible with the internal market.

Nevertheless, the Treaty does recognise that some state aid is necessary for remedying market imperfections or reaching other regional and social aims. Therefore, the Treaty does not ban all types of state aid. Certain types of aid are exempted, provided that Member States comply with the relevant rules.

The decision on whether state aid can be exempted rests entirely with the European Commission which has laid down its policy in various regulations, guidelines, frameworks and notices.

In addition to the regulations and other interpretative documents issued by the European Commission, there is a growing body of case law from the European Courts that interpret the concept of state aid, the conditions for its exemption and the procedures that must be followed.

Member States are obliged to notify to the Commission all new state aid and must await its assessment and eventual approval before they implement it. There are significant legal and financial implications when Member States fail to notify it.

EIPA has developed high-level expertise on state aid and competition related issues. Every year it organises numerous seminars and workshops in Maastricht and the Member States. Some of these seminars deal with horizontal issues of interest to many different public authorities. Some other seminars focus on specific topics such as transport, environmental protection or services of general economic interest. Yet other training activities are organised at the request of public authorities and are intended to address the particular needs of those authorities.

Moreover, EIPA experts run consultancy projects on problematic state aid cases and provide confidential advice on the design, notification and implementation of state aid measures. They also carry out research and publish regularly in professional journals.


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