Enforcing state aid rules in EU candidate countries: a qualitative comparative analysis of the direct and indirect effects of conditionality

Botta, Marco; Schwellnus, Guido

doi:10.1080/13501763.2014.964289

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…More recent qualitative studies, such as Botta and Schwellnus (2015) have addressed the special circumstances of EU State aid control in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and in the Eastern Neighbourhood. In the case of Ukraine, a rather limited convergence with the EU State aid rules is attributed to the role played by veto-players in the form of Ukrainian oligarchs who are able to limit convergence where it impact their interests (Dimitrova and Dragneva 2013).…”

Section: Iiii Empirical Evidence and Competing Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research Handbook on European State Aid Law

Hancher¹,

López²

2021

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This chapter reviews the political science research on European Union (EU) State aid policy. The literature focuses primarily on the evolution of State aid control and on the institutions and actors who play a role in the policy. Resting on Treaty provisions that were little used in the first decades of the European Community, the Commission's incremental soft law approach, supportive jurisprudence from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), and the involvement private complainants have helped bring together Commission and Member State interests in support of State aid control. The Commission's handling of the financial crisis, a test for the more mature regime, has been largely judged a success. Over time policy initiatives have helped to reduce and target national subsidies, and the enforcement of and compliance with the Treaty provisions have improved dramatically since the late 1980s. The political dimension of the policy seems to have less resonance these days, as there are fewer high-profile controversial cases than in the past, but there are still interesting questions to be addressed about the way in which competition, regional, environmental, cultural and industrial policies are balanced against each other in the design and application of the EU-level policy and decision-making, and what the implications of UK's departure from the EU and the emergence of populist governments and leaders in the Member States might mean for State aid control.

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Section: Iiii Empirical Evidence and Competing Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research Handbook on European State Aid Law

Hancher¹,

López²

2021

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“…Existing literature on compliance with European state aid rules in CEE support the general findings of the post-accession compliance literature: not only is there no demonstrated 'Eastern problem' in state aid compliance but new EU member states appear to abide by European state aid rules more faithfully than their EU-15 counterparts (Blauberger 2009a;Hölscher et al 2017). Botta and Schwellnus (2015) attribute reductions in total state aid in the immediate period before accession to the direct effect of EU conditionality, whereby member states scrambled to meet all conditions to secure EU membership, including reducing the total amount of aid to industry. Investigating compliance three years after the 2004 enlargement, Blauberger (2009a) finds no increase in noncompliance with state aid rules.…”

Section: Conceptualizing 'Creative Compliance'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Aiding the state: administrative capacity and creative compliance with European state aid rules in new member states

Lindstrom

2020

Journal of European Public Policy

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The article advances a new explanation of the role of administrative capacity in compliance with European Union (EU) rules. I argue that strong administrative capacity fosters not only compliance but creative compliance where capable civil servants aid determined governments in following formal EU rules while challenging their substance. I develop this argument by comparing two new member states that increased levels of state aid post-crisis but on different types: 'neoliberal' Estonia reporting proportionally more on 'bad' vertical aid than 'illiberal' Hungary. Drawing on original empirical data, I explain that Hungary has engaged in more creative compliance due to more cohesive ideological commitment to state intervention (a will) and stronger administrative capacity to achieve objectives while minimizing EU scrutiny and sanction (a way). Creative compliance with single market rules presents another challenge to the EU's ability to enforce uniform rules to ensure a 'level playing field' within the single market.

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“…143 During the enlargement process, conditionality served as a proxy to expand the acquis to Central and Eastern European countries and to induce them to adjust their administrative structures for EU membership, also in regard to state aid control. 144 The new ESI funding rules, however, relaunch spending conditionalities as a stand-alone governance tool to address structural deficiencies in implementation of EU policies connected to ESI funds. By requiring Member…”

Section: Ex Ante Conditionalities For Esi Funds: Modelling Domesticmentioning

confidence: 99%

State aid control in the modernisation era: Moving towards a differentiated administrative integration?

Colombo¹

2019

European Law Journal

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Despite contentions that state aid control is an instance of direct execution, the State Aid Modernisation (SAM) package has largely dispersed responsibility for giving effect to the common legal framework across national administrations. In this setup, the effectiveness of state aid law is confronted with asymmetric capacities, diffuse application of complex rules and difficulty in keeping dispersed powers under control. This article combines selected evidence on the operation of state aid control with a multidisciplinary analysis of the functioning of integration mechanisms in the European administrative space. The aim is to examine the potential effects of SAM. It contends that, while the reform has strengthened the Commission's dominance, the instruments of administrative integration might fail to secure adequate capacities and implementation performances at national level, due to constitutional constraints and opposing forces. This effect, it is argued, could be divisive, and risks undermining the integrity of the internal market.

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Enforcing state aid rules in EU candidate countries: a qualitative comparative analysis of the direct and indirect effects of conditionality

Cited by 13 publications

References 18 publications

Research Handbook on European State Aid Law

Research Handbook on European State Aid Law

Aiding the state: administrative capacity and creative compliance with European state aid rules in new member states

State aid control in the modernisation era: Moving towards a differentiated administrative integration?

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