This collaborative work was conceived and realized by its authors as a mark of recognition, and a gesture of respect and friendship, for Francisco Santaolalla Gadea, on the occasion of his retirement from the Commission after fourteen years' service as Director of the Legal Service State aid team.
Among the many legal and economic issues arising in the context of State aid decision making and litigation, the authors focus on subjects such as the following:
- role of economic analysis
- constitutional aspects
- State resources
- private market investor
- regional selectivity
- relationship with other areas of EC law
- export aid
- State aid and services of general economic interest
- ecotaxes
- privatisations
- remedies
- existing aid
- temporal aspects
- role of third parties
- admissibility in ECJ proceedings
- role of national courts
- fiscal aspects
- WTO subsidies law
A uniquely important contribution to the debate on EC State aid, this book captures the direct knowledge and experience of twenty-six current and former Commission State aid litigators, offering detailed 'insider' analysis of EC State aid court cases, as well as related internal legal issues, between 1994 and 2008. The book brings together both legal and economic analysis, with detailed reflections on aspects of both substantive legal rules and procedural law.
It also offers, over and above the specific interest of the contributions it contains, invaluable insights into the working methods of the Commission Legal Service.
In illuminating the underlying issues, and describing how they are handled by the Commission Legal Service, the authors shed lighton the likely future development of State aid law. The book will be of particular interest to antitrust practitioners as well as academics.