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The Commission Adopts the New Notice on the Enforcement of State Aid Rules Before National Courts: journal article

An Overview of the State of Play of Private Enforcement of State Aid Law

Leonardo Armati, Federico Macchi

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 21 (2022), Issue 1, Page 3 - 19

The European Commission has adopted a new notice on the enforcement of State aid rules by national courts. The New Enforcement Notice replaces the 2009 Enforcement Notice, providing updated practical guidance for national judges facing private claims to remedy the unlawful granting of State aid, ie without a prior Commission approval or an exemption from notification. This article illustrates the main aspects of the New Enforcement Notice, from the general principles to certain topics, such as the interplay between the Commission and national courts’ proceedings, the role of national courts regarding aid covered by the GBER and damages actions, that appear particularly relevant in the light of the innovation they bring compared to the 2009 Notice. The article, in line with the spirit of the Enforcement Notice, stresses the importance of private enforcement before national courts for an effective development and application of EU State aid rules. Keywords: private enforcement; enforcement notice; national courts; standstill obligation; damages actions


The Interplay between the European Commission, National Authorities and National Courts in State Aid Law: journal article

An Attempt to Cut the Gordian Knot

Ranjana Andrea Achleitner

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 21 (2022), Issue 2, Page 173 - 180

The interplay between the Commission, national courts and national authorities in the system of State aid enforcement poses a number of challenges and potential conflicts, which, in the end – as undoubtedly showcased by the Eesti Pagar judgment– also put the aid beneficiaries under great pressure in the context of the General Block Exemption Regulation. This article attempts to identify the most important problems and challenges related to the division of roles between the institutions in State aid law, with the intention of proposing solutions that provide legal certainty for relevant undertakings, the national authorities and national courts. The article also discusses the fact that despite the growing number of private enforcement litigation, the national courts have rarely concluded that unlawful aid was granted and rarely awarded remedies. The purpose of this paper is to provide proposals for more effective private enforcement. Finally, the article pays particular attention to the limited use of cooperation tools and suggests an update of these mechanisms. Keywords: private enforcement; eState-Wiki; GBER; standstill obligation; unlawful aid



ARTICLES - STATE AID AND NATIONAL JURISDICTIONS ∙ Hic Sunt Leones: Private Enforcement of State Aid Law in Slovakia journal article

Juraj Gyárfaš

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 16 (2017), Issue 3, Page 455 - 469

From the point of view of EU law, the private enforcement of State aid law, i.e. litigation initiated by private parties before a national court with the aim of preventing the payment of State aid, achieving its recovery or claiming damages, appears to be fairly straightforward. Both the substantive and procedural bases of such claims are relatively clearly set out in the case law of the CJEU and in EC soft law. However, when attempting to translate these EU law guidelines into an actual action under national law, a number of procedural as well as substantive problems arise. There is no unified legal framework and various overlapping areas of national law need to be analysed, in particular public law, general tort law, unfair competition law, State liability law, civil procedure and administrative procedure. This may be one of the reasons why such actions are virtually unknown in Slovakia. The article draws on inspiration mainly from German and Austrian case law and analyses how such claims could be framed under Slovak law. It concludes with the question of whether greater harmonisation could facilitate the development of private enforcement of EU State aid law. Keywords: Private Enforcement; Slovak Republic; Unlawful Aid; Compatible Aid.

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