Proving the Point: The Point Proved

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter answers the question ‘How is EU law going (from regional) international (to global)?’ by examining EU’s multilateral agreements, plurilateral agreements and bilateral agreements. This chapter provides a global perspective. It aims to provide an insight into how the EU uses trade instruments for the regulatory export of state aid law and how this practice interacts with the EU’s IAAs (including both bilateral investment agreements and investment chapters in trade agreements). The chapter shows how EU state aid law translates into the international dimensions by observing and analysing the EU’s trade instruments to make and confirm the argument. Hence, it explicitly discusses the first argument of this book regarding how the EU incorporates provisions of fair competition and state aid policy in international trade agreements to guarantee that these agreements in general, and investment chapters in particular, will not conflict with EU state aid law. Because this effect depends on the extent to which these state aid provisions require the third countries to employ state aid rules, this chapter also explores the different types of trade and policy instruments employed by the EU through a state aid lens, particularly how the scope of the EU’s extraterritorial state aid policy materialises—namely, the type of control applied and the level of success, and the effect on the third country, depending on the specific type of instrument employed. In relation to these specific benchmarks, the EU’s international agreements are divided into four distinct categories, and some short case studies of individual countries are provided. Further, the EU’s current actions to hinder future conflicts from claims arising of government measures that are not compatible with EU state aid law are explained to provide an insight into whether arbitration awards that are incompatible with EU state aid law are enforceable.