European Competition Law provides a wide-ranging review of the European rules relating to competition: restrictive agreements, abuse of a dominant position, impact of intellectual property rights, procedure, merger control, State aid.

European Competition Law

State measures “to promote the economic development of areas where the standard of living is abnormally low or where there is serious underemployment” may characterize a compatible aid (Article 107(3)(a) TFEU). An aid scheme which applies to all national undertakings in an economic sector, irrespective of their location, does not have regional development as an aim . The compatibility of an aid fo …

Aid for less favored areas

State measures “to promote the economic development of areas where the standard of living is abnormally low or where there is serious underemployment” may characterize a compatible aid (Article 107(3)(a) TFEU). An aid scheme which applies to all national undertakings in an economic sector, irrespective of their location, does not have regional development as an aim . The compatibility of an aid for disadvantaged regions is assessed taking account of the EU interest, although the condition that the aid must not adversely affect trading conditions to an extent contrary to the common interest is set out only in paragraph 3(c) and (d) . The State programme must contribute to a real restructuring which fully guarantees the viability of the recipient undertaking . This is the case where the recipient shows that its proposed investment is an economically viable alternative in the planned location, and that the aid only serves to compensate for the financial disadvantage of the choice of location .

A regional aid granted for a project which helps to create jobs may be authorized even though it threatens jobs in other regions of the EU . The compatibility of regional operating aid may be exceptionally admitted where it is justified on the grounds of its nature and contribution to regional development and where the amount of the aid is in proportion to the disadvantages which it is intended to mitigate . By contrast, an individual aid measure - awarded outside the aid schemes approved by the Commission - does not constitute a regional aid compatible with the internal market where it takes place in a highly competitive sector subjected to nearly constant restructuring and on a market which is stagnant . Similarly, the granting of ad hoc measures in favor of a single undertaking cannot constitute, as an exception, an operating aid compatible with the common market in application of Article 107 TFEU(3)(a), insofar as, for operating aid to be capable of contributing to regional development, it is important, at the very least, to ensure that all operators in the sector concerned also have the possibility of obtaining the aid . 

The amount of a proposed investment aid in a qualifying regional area within the meaning of Article 107(3)(a) TFEU must comply with certain thresholds. They should be fixed at a level that strikes the appropriate balance between minimizing distortions of competition in the sector concerned and tackling the market failure or cohesion issues concerned. The allowable aid intensities are set in the light of the regional aid maps.

Under the block exemption regulation , regional aid can be granted in disadvantaged areas to promote the setting-up of new establishments, the extension of the capacity of an existing establishment, the diversification of the output of an establishment or a fundamental change in the overall production process of an existing establishment (recital 31).

Commission Decision No 93/496/EEC of 9 June 1993, State aid procedure C 32-92, LawLex200400002490JBJ.

Case C-169/95 Spain v Commission [1997] ECR I-135, LawLex200500005093JBJ.

A restructuring plan does not ensure the long-term viability of a undertaking receiving public capital injections upon privatization, within the meaning of Article 107(3(a) TFEU, where it is based on unrealistic forecasts and where the success of the transaction, which depends on the amount of resources committed and the rapidity with which this should be done, is undermined by the lack of financial means of the acquirers: Commission Decision No 97/242/EC of 18 September 1996, Hilaturas y Tejidos Andaluces SA, LawLex200500004780JBJ; Case C-278/92 Spain v Commission [1994] ECR I-4103, LawLex200500005002JBJ.

Commission Decision No 2002/143/EC of 18 July 2001, Automobilmanufaktur Dresden GmbH, LawLex200400002644JBJ.

Case T-380/94 AIUFASS and AKT v Commission [1996] ECR II-2169, LawLex200500005150JBJ.

Commission Decision No 1999-718 of 24 February 1999, Daewoo Electronics, LawLex200500004736JBJ; Case T-778-17 Autostrada Wielkopolska S.A. v European Commission, Republic of Poland, Judgment of 24 October 2019, LawLex201900001292JBJ, holding that the compensation paid to the beneficiary undertaking, which resulted from taking into account a higher internal rate of return than it could have expected immediately prior to the amendment of the law, constitutes an economic advantage in the form of operating aid, incompatible with the internal market, since it did not contribute to regional development; Case T-671/22 Vima World (SA), Judgment of 19 June 2024, not available in English, which held that regional operating aid for the outermost regions is designed to offset the additional costs borne by undertakings in these regions due to the disadvantages they suffer, which means that only activities affected by the disadvantages, and the additional costs specific to these regions, are likely to be granted such aid.

Commission Decision No 1999/718/EC of 24 February 1999, Daewoo Electronics, LawLex200500004736JBJ.

Case T-314/15 Greece v Commission, Judgment of 13 December 2017, not available in English.

Regulation No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty.

European Competition Law

407. Aid for less favored areas

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

407. Aid for less favored areas

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise