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• Effects of the State Aid Soft Law on Beneficiaries: Annotation on an order of the General Court

  118-127

  Péter Staviczky

  Views:

  189

  The European Commission issues guidelines and other soft law instruments to define the compatibility conditions of State aid to be granted by Member States with the internal market. Although the soft law is only binding on the Commission it has not negligible indirect effect on the Member States state aid policy and thereby on other policies. So far it was not clear how much beneficiaries could find remedy at European Courts against the soft law issued by the Commission. The present article gives a description on the adoption of the new energy and environmental aid guidelines with the focus on the conditions related to aid to operating aid to energy generation from renewable energy sources in the context of the State Aid modernization initiative. A comparison to the previous rules was also made. Thereafter the article summarizes an order of the General Court issued in a procedure where an applicant has initiated action for annulment of the guidelines. The article also tries to draw some conclusions about the possibilities and limits of beneficiaries and Member States to question the legality of State aid soft law instruments at European Courts.

• To support or not to support? A critical look at film support schemes: the American and the European Model

  42-61

  Klára Szalay

  Views:

  138

  The current article aims at mapping the origins of film aid schemes, comparing the different motives that lay behind the American and European model eventually leading to a globally strengthening subsidy race. Rules guiding national subsidies for the film industry in the European Union have their limits in the State Aid rules of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union as well as the Communication of the Commission on certain legal aspects relating to cinematographic and other audiovisual works.