Infrastructure Funding at the Interface between the EU State Aid Rules and Member States’ General Economic Policy

Abstract

This article depicts the evolution of the Commisson's State aid practice concerning Member States' funding of infrastructures. The development and financing of infrastructures had traditionally been considered a public task in the Member States. Since the 1990s, however, the Commission gradually expanded the scope of State aid control to Member States' infrastructure projects. The article discusses the legal and practical challenges of a coherent application of the State aid rules in this field. In particular, it outlines the limits of the Commission's competence to get actively involved in the Member States' infrastructure policy. In this context, the article proposes a further streamlining of the case practice. Moreover, it suggests that a greater emphasis should be given to an individual analysis of the potential competitive effects of State aid on infrastructure markets. Keywords: Infrastructure Aid; State Aid Policy; Market Failure; Division of Competences; Notion of Undertaking; Indirect Aid; Distortion of Competition; Balancing Test.