Case C‑224/12 P: State aid to ING & the applicability of the private investor test (original) (raw)
Related papers
The European Energy Internal Market has changed completely the environment of the Energy Sector in Europe. This deep transformation was a consequence, almost in a very significant part, of the regular application of the European Competition Law rules. The evolution of Energy Sector in Europe, where the most important firms were the old monopolists, generally in hands of the public sector, it is based on the expandable delimitation of the notion of «Services of General Economic Interest» («SGEI») and their missions contained in Article 106.2 TFEU and in the well-known doctrine of the «essential facilities». In this new context, both the European Commission and the National Competition Authorities started a strong fight not only against anticompetitive agreements and abuses of dominant position, but also against illegal state aid. In the field of state aid control, many of the «Leading Cases» on the complex notion of State Aid from Article 107.1 TFEU are «energy cases», many of them related with taxation. The «EDF Case» is one of these leading cases, and the principal object of this paper. In EDF case, the European Commission analyses, in a second decision, after the General Court and the Court of Justice had annulled the first one, the reclassification as capital of the tax-exempt accounting provisions for the renewal of the high-voltage transmission network (RAG) implemented by France in favour of one of the biggest European firms in the energy sector. This decision gives very interesting remarks on the application of the «Market Economy Investor Test», on a measure financed by public resources from a tax instrument.
The Market Economy Investor Principle: Lessons Learned from the Ciudad De La Luz Case
Journal of Competition Law and Economics, 2016
This article analyses the principles applied by the European Commission in the state aid case Ciudad de la Luz. We first review how Market Economy Investor Principle (MEIP) has been applied in concrete state aid cases. We then briefly describe the market for large studios as well as the facts pertaining to the Ciudad de la Luz. Based on the information gathered by the European Commission during the investigation, we show how it is possible to make use of financial theory to apply the MEIP in that particular case. Given the level of in-depth economic and financial assessment performed by the Commission and the subsequent endorsement received by the General Court of the EU, this decision is likely to set an important standard for future investigations into the Market Economy Investor Principle.
Shortcomings of the EU state aid model from peripheral perspective: the case of Estonian Air
The problems with national airlines in small peripheral member states indicate that the effects of strict competition policy and state aid rules of the European Union (EU) may not be equally useful for all member states and their citizens. Measures that are considered efficient from the perspective of one EU member state may not necessarily improve the welfare at the EU level and vice versa. While common competition policy rules are often justified by referring to the core values of European integration and the Single Market, the values themselves prioritize different aspects of the ideals of free market, European solidarity, and institutional stability. Curiously, as a result, the EU practical regulations are often imposing significant costs on a local peripheral consumer while even unable of meeting the proclaimed European values. By using the case study of the Estonian national flag carrier Estonian Air the current study focuses on the question whether the EU state aid regulation is simultaneously rational and sufficiently flexible to take into account the joint values of the European single market and specific needs of peripheral member states.
This article focuses, first of all, on the concepts of social service and healthcare in light of the EU secondary law (binding and non-binding) as well as of the jurisprudence of the CJEU. It then deals with the 'Almunia Package' of 2011/2012 and finally investigates the recent practice of the Commission and the CJEU in the field. The analysis shows that, generally, by providing and extending a special treatment for welfare services, the EU institutions seem to have successfully consolidated the social market economy principles which define the EU model of society.
State Aid in the Enlarged European Union. An Overview
2010
In the early phase of transition that started with the 1990s, Central and Eastern European Countries pursued economic restructuring of the enterprise sector that involved massive injections of state support. Also foreign investment from the West and facilitation of the development of a market economy involved massive injections of state support. With their accession to the European Union (EU), levels