- Jahrgang 19 (2020), Ausgabe 1
- Vol. 19 (2020), Nr. 1
- >
- Seiten 19 - 28
- pp. 19 - 28
When Do Funds Become State Resources
The Notion of Aid in View of the Recent EEG and Achema Judgments
The case-law on the notion of ‘State resources’ includes several landmark cases, where the Court of Justice has carefully delineated the scope of the Commission’s jurisdiction under EU State aid law. The present article aims at presenting a consistent interpretation of that case-law, starting from the Sloman Neptun judgment in 1993 up to the very recent judgments in EEG and in Achema in 2019. Although an isolated reading of the latter two judgments may give the impression that they contradict each other, the author is of the view that such impression would be erroneous and based on incomplete information. When seen in the full context of the case-law on the notion of ‘State resources’, those two judgments are perfectly complementary. The article concludes by presenting the three alternative situations where State resources would be present according to the case-law as it stands today.
Keywords: State resources; Notion of aid; State control.