Table of Contents
Does the EU allow state aid?
The EU and its Member States also use state aid as a policy tool. Exemptions to the EU state aid rules allow for certain beneficial interventions.
What does the EU mean by state aid?
State Aid is a term that refers to forms of State-controlled financial resources, given to Undertakings on a discretionary basis, with the potential to distort competition and affect trade between Member States of the European Union.
What are examples of state aid?
Examples of state aid include government providing below market rate rents, soft loans, sectoral tax breaks, and other support that could grant an undertaking a competitive advantage.
What are state aid rules?
State aid is defined in the EU’s foundational treaty as any state spending that potentially distorts trade between member states. The measures must be selective (so country-wide tax measures are exempt but specific tax advantages to a subset of businesses are not) and they should benefit the recipient in some way.
What is state aid de minimis?
De minimis aid indeed refers to small amounts of State aid to undertakings (companies) that do not have to be notified to the European Commission by the EU Member States.
What has replaced state aid?
Now a year later since the end of the transition period, the term ‘subsidy’ has replaced ‘State aid’ in the context of public authorities awarding financial assistance.
What is banned by the EU rules on state aid?
European Union law generally prohibits State aid to undertakings (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), Article 107(1)). Public aid granted to an undertaking may give the company in question a selective financial advantage, which may distort competition and the functioning of the internal market.
Does state aid apply in the UK?
What has happened to State aid law? The previous law on State aid that applied while the UK was a member of the European Union was repealed at 11pm on 31 December 2020 by the State Aid (Revocations and Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 and so no longer binds UK public bodies.
What is State aid called now?
Subsidy
“Subsidy” is the new “state aid” – broadly the same meaning as the definition in Article 107 TFEU albeit using language which is more friendly to a common law legal system.