Vittoria Musardo

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 20 (2021), Issue 2, Page 217 - 228

The current revision of the Energy and Environmental State aid guidelines (EEAG) represents a unique opportunity to update and adapt the current regime to reflect the latest EU regulatory and policy developments on climate change and environmental protection and especially the new goals of the European Green Deal. In this context, it becomes paramount to develop a clear and consistent approach for singling out aid measures which are truly capable of bringing about a further level of environmental protection, necessary for attaining such bold and farsighted objectives. The present article will seek to develop a consistent evaluation model for identifying aids which are truly environmental in nature, ensuring that the advantages allocated are targeted and limited to what is strictly necessary. This standard will build on the potential for a strategic use of the Incentive Effect criteria in the assessment of the compatibility of aid measures, aimed at making sure that the behavioural shifts induced by the latter are capable of attaining a level of environmental benefit consistent with the heightened environmental objectives introduced by the Green Deal. Keywords: Green Deal; EEAG; Incentive Effect; renewable energy; environmental aid.

Marianne Clayton, Maria Segura

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 20 (2021), Issue 2, Page 301 - 303

Hans Friederiszick, Ela Głowicka, Linda Gratz, Simone Lünenbürger, Andreas Rosenfeld

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 17 (2018), Issue 4, Page 509 - 524

The obligation to carry out an ex post evaluation of certain State aid measures was introduced in the European Union in 2014. This obligation represents an important element of the broader State Aid Modernisation initiative of DG Competition. In this article, we offer guidance, both from a legal and an economic perspective, on when an ex post evaluation is required, which methods are available and which methods are actually considered by Member States. More specifically, we propose a ‘traffic light system’, supporting a self-assessment of whether an ex post evaluation is required for a specific measure or not. Furthermore, we review the 24 evaluation plans which were approved by the European Commission by August 2018, with respect to the proposed approaches to the measurement of direct and indirect effects, appropriateness and proportionality. We find that the most common method considered by Member States in their evaluation plans is the econometric estimation of differences-in-differences. Keywords: State aid ex post evaluation; Environmental aid; Econometric estimation methods; Evaluation plans.