Abstract
In the previous issue, the ‘Review of EU Case Law on State aid – 2023 – PART I’1 discussed interesting elements from the case law regarding the notion of aid. This paper constitutes the second part of the Review of EU Case Law on State Aid 2023 and highlights the State aid cases decided by both the General Court (GC) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ), collectively known as the EU Courts, regarding the compatibility of State aid with the internal market as well as State aid procedures. Together they provide an overview of the most important findings in the 2023 State aid case law.
This article is organised as follows.
In section II, we discuss the case law on compatibility of State aid with the internal market. This section tackles the following subtopics: 1) rescue aid, 2) SGEIs and Altmark, 3) aid for environmental protection and energy, 4) the application of the EU State aid rules in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, 5) compliance with EU law, and 6) miscellaneous cases regarding compatibility that deserve specific attention in our opinion.
Finally, section III is dedicated to EU State aid procedures. It covers the following procedural topics: 1) the difference between existing and new State aid, 2) the European Commission's (Commission) obligation to initiate the formal investigation procedure, 3) the admissibility of natural and legal persons to launch an action for annulment on the basis of Article 263(4) TFEU, 4) remedies and the recovery of State aid, 5) the concept of ‘interested parties’, 6) the access to State aid files, 7) the obligation to state reasons, 8) the role of national courts, 9) rejection of complaints, and 10) evidence.
This overview is not intended to cover a detailed and exhaustive analysis of each judgment, but rather provide the key takeaways from the cases and invite the reader to delve further into the insights of the EU Courts’ reasoning. It is possible that cases are discussed under several topics because parties frequently present multiple legal arguments.
An overview of the cases addressed in each section can be found in Table 1 (see Appendix).
This article is organised as follows.
In section II, we discuss the case law on compatibility of State aid with the internal market. This section tackles the following subtopics: 1) rescue aid, 2) SGEIs and Altmark, 3) aid for environmental protection and energy, 4) the application of the EU State aid rules in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, 5) compliance with EU law, and 6) miscellaneous cases regarding compatibility that deserve specific attention in our opinion.
Finally, section III is dedicated to EU State aid procedures. It covers the following procedural topics: 1) the difference between existing and new State aid, 2) the European Commission's (Commission) obligation to initiate the formal investigation procedure, 3) the admissibility of natural and legal persons to launch an action for annulment on the basis of Article 263(4) TFEU, 4) remedies and the recovery of State aid, 5) the concept of ‘interested parties’, 6) the access to State aid files, 7) the obligation to state reasons, 8) the role of national courts, 9) rejection of complaints, and 10) evidence.
This overview is not intended to cover a detailed and exhaustive analysis of each judgment, but rather provide the key takeaways from the cases and invite the reader to delve further into the insights of the EU Courts’ reasoning. It is possible that cases are discussed under several topics because parties frequently present multiple legal arguments.
An overview of the cases addressed in each section can be found in Table 1 (see Appendix).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | European State Aid Law Quarterly |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Pages (from-to) | 294-338 |
| Number of pages | 45 |
| ISSN | 1619-5272 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2024 |
Keywords
- Case law review
- Notion of aid
- Compatibility
- Procedure