State Aid Uncovered

Book excerpt: This third volume of State Aid Uncovered reviews the main developments in the field of State aid in 2015. The past 12 months have been full of surprising twists and turns in the evolution of the concept of State aid. EU courts have ruled on issues such as public pronouncements and State resources, while the Commission has tackled tax advantages for multinational companies and has given us new perspectives on how State aid may affect cross-border trade. Phedon Nicolaides who is Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and the University of Maastricht, as well as Academic Director at Lexxion Training, casts a critical eye on State aid judgments and decisions of the preceding year. The book compiles articles originally published on a weekly basis on Lexxion's StateAidHub.eu. The compilation is conveniently grouped into chapters covering issues such as "Non-Economic Activities," "Selectivity," "Infrastructure," or "Recovery of Incompatible State Aid." Each article presents the main points of a court ruling or Commission decision, places them in the context of similar case law or practice, assesses the underlying reasoning, and identifies any inconsistencies or contradictions. The reader will benefit from a fairly comprehensive and easily accessible compilation of the main developments in State aid law and practice and will gain an insight in how State aid principles can be applied in practice.