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A European State Aid Approach to the Egyptian Competition Policy in the Area of Public Services: Lessons Learnt from the EU Post-Altmark Regulatory Package

Amir Ibrahim

DOI https://doi.org/10.21552/estal/2016/4/9



This article will examine the uneasy compromise between competition policy and public services in Egypt guided by the well-established EU experience. It will answer the question of whether and to what extent the lines that separate public service activities from economic activities subject to competition law can be disentangled. For this purpose, the article examines the challenges surrounding the concept of public service in Egypt and their implications on the emergence of a competitive environment. In an attempt to find proper remedies and drawing relevant lesson, the article studies the EU law on State aid in the area of public services standing as a leading experience for resolving the tension between public services and competition policy. This should also help in finding a framework for harmonising the Egyptian Competition Policy with that of the EU in line with Egypt’s international commitment in the field. The discussion will further, propose mechanisms that aim to balance the policies underlying the public/private divide contained in the Egyptian Competition Law, and to ensure that the scope of competition law is neither over-inclusive nor under-inclusive.
Keywords: Altmark; Egypt; Public Services.

Dr Amir Ibrahim, Ph.D. in Competition Law, Centre For Commercial Law Studies (CCLS), Queen Mary University of London, B.A. & LL.M. University Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) School of Law, Consultant to the Chairperson of the Egyptian Competition Authority, former Research and Teaching Assistant in Law & Economics at CCLS. The author is grateful for Professor Takis Tridimas Chair of European Law, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London for his comments received on the original draft of this article. The author remains solely responsible for all mistakes, omissions and opinions. DOI: 10.21552/estal/2016/4/9

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