Europäisches Beihilfenrecht Blog

State Aid Uncovered Blog

In Lexxions Blog „State Aid Uncovered” veröffentlicht Prof. Phedon Nicolaides wöchentlich kritische Analysen zu den neuesten Urteilen und Entscheidungen zu staatlichen Beihilfen. Jeder Beitrag stellt die wichtigsten Punkte eines Gerichtsurteils oder einer EU-Kommissionsentscheidung vor, ordnet sie in den Kontext ähnlicher Rechtsprechung oder Praxis ein, bewertet die zugrundeliegende Argumentation und zeigt etwaige Ungereimtheiten oder Widersprüche auf.

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Professor at Maastricht University; Professor at University of Nicosia, and Academic Director at Lexxion Training

5. November 2015 | Guest State Aid Blog von Lexxion Publisher

Court’s Diary – November 2015

gavel

Find below the court’s diary for all State aid cases. Would you like to write a comment on one of them? Please don’t hesitate and get in touch with us ([email protected]), we are happy to publish your comment on the blog. Wednesday 11/11/2015 Judgment in Case C-505/14 – Klausner Holz Niedersachsen (Court of Justice – Second Chamber) Thursday 12/11/2015 Judgment in […]

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4. November 2015 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

Economic Continuity and Recovery of Incompatible State Aid

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Incompatible State aid must be recovered from “successor” companies which acquire previously aided companies and enable the latter to continue their operations without any change. Introduction In this article I review two decisions in which the Commission determined that incompatible aid had to be recovered from “successor” companies. Those were companies which had obtained the assets of the […]

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27. Oktober 2015 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

The Perennial Altmark Questions

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A SGEI provider does not have to be efficient by industry standards in order to receive compensation for its next extra costs. Although the conditions for compatibility of public service compensation under Article 106(2) TFEU appear to be similar to the Altmark criteria, they have very different objectives. Introduction Even since the Altmark judgment of July 2003, public authorities […]

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22. Oktober 2015 | Guest State Aid Blog von Emanuela Matei

A new misnomer in State aid law: single economic unit with separate legal personality (C 357/14 P, Dunamenti Erőmű/Commission)

electricity grid cables

The following blog post is a contributory piece by Emanuela Matei, Associate Researcher at the Centre of European Legal Studies, Bucharest. Matei holds a Juris Master in European Business Law (Lund University, June 2012), a Magister legum (Lund University, June 2010) and a BSc in Economics & Business Administration (Lund University, June 2009). We are very glad to welcome her […]

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20. Oktober 2015 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

Should State Aid that Is Passed on to Consumers Not be Recovered?

State Aid Blogs - 10.10. Stateaid deminimis calculator

Should the amount of recoverable aid be similarly reduced by the amount that is allegedly passed on to consumers? I will argue the case against it. Introduction On 5 February 2015, the General Court, in cases T-473/12, Aer Lingus v Commission[1] and T-500/12, Ryanair v Commission[2], annulled Article 4 of Commission Decision 2013/199. In that decision the Commission found that a […]

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13. Oktober 2015 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

A Primer on Compensation for the Extra Costs of Public Service Obligations Taking into Account Efficiency Gains

State Aid Blogs - StateAidHub blogpost38 saleofbank

When Member States impose PSOs they are never allowed to grant even a single euro in excess of the net extra costs of the PSO. That is prohibited for the simple reason that it results in over-compensation. Introduction The Lexxion seminar on state aid for transport and transport infrastructure that took place in Brussels on 21-22 September (view […]

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12. Oktober 2015 | Guest State Aid Blog von Lexxion Publisher

Courts’s Diary – October 2015

gavel

Any comments on #Stateaid? Get in touch: Stateaidhub[at]lexxion.eu Thursday 01/10/2015 Judgment in Case C-357/14 P – Electrabel and Dunamenti Erőmű v Commission (Court of Justice – Third Chamber) Tuesday 06/10/2015 Judgment in Case C-303/13 P – Andersen v Commission (Court of Justice – Grand Chamber) Thursday 08/10/2015 Hearing in Joined Cases T-479/11 & T-157/12 – France v Commission, […]

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5. Oktober 2015 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

The State Acting as a Private Creditor & State Aid Enforcement and Procedural Rights

State Aid Blogs - StateAidHub blogpost14 StateAid Lexxion Money Eu Commission Bank Financial

In this article I review Commission decision SA.37100 on JSC Liepajas Metalurgs [LM], once Latvia’s largest steel company and major employer. The decision examines whether Latvia acted promptly to recover a debt owed to it by a company that faced financial difficulties. The question was whether Latvia acted as a private creditor when it allowed the debtor to continue operations. […]

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29. September 2015 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

Airport Infrastructure, Public Remit and the MEOT

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A public authority, acting as a private investor, may provide finance which is free of state aid to an airport and at the same time grant state aid to the same airport. Public funding of activities that fall within the exclusive tasks of the state is not state aid. When a public authority defines the activities that fall within the […]

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25. September 2015 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

New State Aid Regulations

sign

Regulation 2015/1589 is the new procedural regulation. It lays down the rules for, among other things, notification of state aid, formal investigation, injunctions and recovery of incompatible aid. Because of its importance in the EU system of state aid control, it will be fully reviewed at a forthcoming article. In the Official Journal of 24 September 2015 you will find […]

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8. November 2013 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

Tax Hypothecation and Economic Efficiency under Altmark: T-275/11, French Television 1 v Commission

television

Background France Télévisions is a limited company wholly owned by the French State. As France abolished advertising on public television, it also decided to provide financial compensation to France Télévisions. For this reason it introduced new taxes to generate revenue for the compensation: a tax on advertising and a tax on electronic communications. In January 2009, France notified to the […]

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31. Oktober 2013 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

A Public Authority Can Behave Like a Private Investor even when the Beneficiary Has Little Prospect of Future Profitability

airplane flying

Introduction When a public authority invests in an undertaking, it must earn a return at market rates, otherwise the investment is State aid. Normally, it is much easier to prove that the investment has a reasonable prospect of profitability and, therefore, that it would be made by a private investor, when the recipient undertaking is in a good financial situation. […]

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18. Oktober 2013 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

A Case of Public Funding of Infrastructure that Does not Constitute State Aid: But Many Questions Remain

fortress

Introduction After the landmark judgment in Leipzig-Halle, public authorities are justifiably careful to ensure that the infrastructure they fund is either free of State aid or, if that is unavoidable, that the State aid is compatible with the internal market. Recent cases have shown that there are two problems in this regard. First, public authorities must verify whether the organisations […]

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11. Oktober 0213 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

New Case Law on Incentive Effect, “Private Borrower”, Advantage, Compensation, SGEI and Market Failure

gavel on a laptop

Introduction The posting reviews three recent rulings of the General Court. They are significant because they introduce substantial nuances in the case law concerning the concepts of incentive effect, compensation for structural impediment, the designation of an activity as a service of general economic interest (SGEI) and the connection between market failure and SGEI. On the whole, the Court […]

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4. Oktober 2013 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

The Offsetting of a Structural Disadvantage Is still State Aid

scale and a book

Introduction Normally it is conceptually and technically fairly easy to determine whether an undertaking benefits from a public measure. However, this task becomes considerably more difficult in two situations: i) when a public authority claims that it acts like a private investor and ii) when a public measure is intended to compensate for a disadvantage suffered by the beneficiary undertaking […]

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26. September 2013 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

The Emerging Doctrine of Inseparability and Compensation for Public Service Obligations [T-347/09, Germany v Commission]

hands in a forest

Introduction In the landmark judgment in Leipzig Halle, the General Court stated that infrastructure which is inseparable from economic activity is itself economic and its public funding can fall in principle within the scope of Article 107(1) TFEU. The Court of Justice has confirmed this principle. On 12 September 2013, the General Court in its judgment in case T-347/09, Germany […]

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14. September 2013 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

Privatisation of Aeroportos de Portugal: Conflict between the National Economic Adjustment Programme and State Aid Rules?

people at the airport

Background Portugal notified to the Commission the privatisation of the “Aeroportos de Portugal” [ANA] for reasons of legal certainty [SA.36197].[1] ANA is the operator of most Portuguese airports. It manages eight airports across Portugal (Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Beja, and 4 airports in the Azores) that account for the vast majority of the commercial air traffic in the country. It is worth […]

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2. September 2013 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

Altmark and Public Procurement: Definition and Award of Contracts

handshake

Introduction Ever since the Court of Justice ruled on Altmark ten years ago there has been a growing literature on the specific conditions that have to be satisfied so that public assistance to a provider of services of general economic interest [SGEI] does not constitute state aid. In this context, the relationship between the Altmark criteria and the public procurement […]

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23. August 2013 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

Selectivity and Administrative Discretion

computer keyboard

On 18 July 2013, in case C-6/12, the Court of Justice of the European Union rendered a judgment on an interesting aspect of the concept of selectivity.[1] The judgment concerned a request for preliminary ruling in a dispute between “P Oy”, a Finnish company, and Finnish tax authorities. The tax authorities refused to allow P Oy to deduct losses incurred in […]

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15. August 2013 | State Aid Uncovered von Phedon Nicolaides

The Confusion between Necessity and Proportionality of State Aid [Case SA.35738: Public Funding of Port Infrastructure]

port

Introduction Several postings in this blog have examined cases concerning funding of port, airport or sport infrastructure. These cases have all had interesting peculiarities. Some involved no state aid because public authorities acted as private investors, while in other cases the funding arrangements were designed in such a way so that the state aid to operators would not spill over […]

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