Under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (Association Agreement), Ukraine is required to roll out state aid regulation in convergence with the EU acquis. The European-style regulation – to be effective from 2 August 2017 – will be based on the Association Agreement itself, the Law of Ukraine on State Aid to Undertakings No. 1555-VII of 1…
The EU antitrust rules on State aid aim to prevent Member States from distorting competition by giving companies receiving State assistance a “leg up” on their competitors. The concept of State “aid” is broad, and the circumstances under which it may unlawfully distort competition are not always obvious. In addition, the Treaty provisions and secondary…
On 19 May 2016, the Commission released its Notice on the notion of state aid. The aim of this Notice is to provide legal certainty by clarifying the key concepts relating to the notion of state aid. Ironically, many argue that the Commission has stretched this notion in the tax ruling cases, harming the same…
After the UK Brexit referendum of 23 June the implications on the political, economic and legal relations between the UK and the EU have been discussed from many angles. But what about one of the main pillars for the successful integration of the European Single Market: State aid law? Does the end of EU membership…
“Improper and plainly undermines legal certainty and the rule of law.” This is how four U.S. senators – including the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee – recently described the European Commission’s State aid investigation into tax rulings by Member States, including into Ireland’s tax treatment of Apple. Of course the…
The summaries of the pleas of the actions for annulment lodged by Luxembourg and the Netherlands in the Fiat and Starbucks cases respectively were recently published (see here and here). Moreover, the pleas of Fiat in its own action for annulment against the Commission’s decision were also published (see here). These pleas are important because…
On 8 October 2013, it was announced that the nuclear industry would not be included in the European Commission’s draft Guidelines on environmental and energy aid for 2014-2020 as anticipated. Earlier in the year, a leaked copy of the draft Guidelines (which the author has read) set out six pages on how the Commission would…
