Péter Staviczky

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 16 (2017), Issue 1, Page 77 - 81

The present annotiation analyses the General Court's judgment of 22 June 2016 in case T-118/13 Whirlpool Europe BV vs European Commission. The judgment shed light on the difficulties to prove admissibility for competitors of State aid beneficiaries. After describing the background of the case it deals with the arguments of the parties, the General Court's resoning and draws some conclusion on the practical difficulties for third parties to submit sucessfull pleas to EU Courts. Keywords: Admissibility; Direct Concern; Substantial Effect; Res Judicata.

Péter Staviczky

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 16 (2017), Issue 4, Page 559 - 566

The issues highlighted in the present paper were presented at the 15th Experts’ Forum on the New Developments in European State aid Law in Brussels in cooperation with Mr. Antonios Bouchagiar (Legal Service, EC). The main aim of the presentation was to draw attention to some of the difficulties MS face when granting regional aid to projects where large undertakings and/or relocation of economic activities might be involved. Keywords: Regional Aid; SAM; RAG; GBER; Relocation.

Péter Staviczky

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 15 (2016), Issue 2, Page 235 - 238

The content of the following article was presented at the conference ‘The rights and duties of State aid beneficiaries’ held in Paris 19 February 2016. The author was part of the first panel ’National Authorities in Dialogue with Beneficiaries’ with Ms Delphine Abramowitz (Directorate General for Enterprise, Ministry of Economy, Paris) and Mr. Michael Honoré (Bech-Bruun, Copenhagen). The aim of the conference was to contribute to the ongoing debate on the reform of the State aid control system by discussing procedural questions arising in the implementation of EU state aid law. The presentation focussed on the granting of State aid and communication among the stakeholders related to the granting. Keywords: Granting of Aid; Coordination; Compliance.

Péter Staviczky

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 14 (2015), Issue 3, Page 332 - 339

Selectivity is an evergreen topic of the State aid jurisprudence and related legal literature. The European Courts have dealt with this issue in great detail regularly. Following the landmark judgments of the recent years the method to establish whether a measure is selective or not has been crystallized. This three step method has been however challenged by two recent judgments of the General Court both on Spanish tax measures. Since the judgments create some ambiguity it is worth to explore their arguments and highlight the weak points as Member States have to follow the jurisprudence if they intend to build a State aid compliant tax system. Keywords: Notion of Aid, Selectivity, de facto Selectivity, Action for Annulment, Undertakings in similar Factual and Legal Situation

Péter Staviczky

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 14 (2015), Issue 1, Page 117 - 129

State aid law sets some barriers for each project or undertaking above which State funding is not allowed. However, compliance with these requirements is not straightforward and simple especially when different types of State aid and/or different forms of State aid is granted to the same undertaking. With the State Aid Modernisation rules on cumulation become clearer, although some difficulties still remain. Keywords: Cumulation, De minimis aid, Eligible costs, GBER, Regional aid, Risk capital, SAM.

Péter Staviczky

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 11 (2012), Issue 1, Page 215 - 220