Greening EU Competition Law and Policy

Kingston, Suzanne

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511758522

Cited by 25 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…A support measure falls within the scope of this provision if it (i) confers an economic advantage that the beneficiary would not have received, at all or easily, under normal conditions; 'exemptions' recognise that markets may not always work properly when left completely alone and may need State intervention to work more effectively and smoothly. 55 The effect of the second and third paragraphs of the Article is that a measure can still be compatible with the internal market even if it is found to be State aid. The exemptions in Article 107(2) TFEU are mandatory -if the aid falls within one of the categories specified therein, which include social aid to individual consumers, disaster aid and aid compensating for the cold war division of Germany, the Commission is required to approve it and has no discretion to decide otherwise.…”

Section: 1eu State Aid Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflecting Environmental Protection Requirements in the EU State Aid Policy

Mammadli

2020

SSRN Journal

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European Union is one of the top-performing parts of the world in environmental matters: its Member States push hard to address modern environmental challenges they face, including climate change, and achieve their environmental targets. However, in doing so, the Member States need to comply with European Union law. The State aid policy and the 'polluter pays' principle of the environmental policy of the European Union often seem as obstacles before the Member States to implement their national environmental policies.On the one hand, State aid control is essential to keep the economy free from distorting state interventions and maintain a high level of competition in the internal market. On the other hand, the protection of the environment is among the priority objectives of the European Union. Moreover, requirements of environmental protection must be integrated into all policy areas, including State aid. The purpose of this work is to study how the environmental protection and its requirements are integrated into the State aid policy when these two legitimate interests -a competitive economy by controlling State aid and a green economy by promoting a higher level of environmental protection -intersect.To present the bigger picture, the study, first, visits the fundamentals, where the objectives of the European Union, general principles of the European Union law and the competence division are briefly elaborated. Next, the European Union legal framework for State aid control, environmental protection and environmental integration is shortly presented. Finally, the question of how the objective of environmental protection is reflected in the State aid policy is addressed with a deep analysis of the General Block Exemption Regulation, Environmental and Energy Aid Guidelines, and relevant Treaty rules. The thesis shows that although the Member States are confronted by the State aid policy of the European Union, this policy actually envisages quite generous rules and approach for granting necessary environmental State aid to businesses.

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Section: 1eu State Aid Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflecting Environmental Protection Requirements in the EU State Aid Policy

Mammadli

2020

SSRN Journal

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“…Furthermore, the Treaty provides ‘linking clauses’ – one of them relating to environmental protection. This leads, at the very least, to the conclusion that there is no hierarchy between on the one hand competition concerns, and on the other, environmental protection and sustainable development in the Treaty system (Kingston, ; Monti, ).…”

Section: Competition Law In the Economic Constitutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking Competition Law within the European Economic Constitution

Gerbrandy

2019

J of Common Market Studies

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In light of re‐conceptualizing a European social market economy, this contribution considers competition law's position in the European economic constitution. The economic constitution captures the economic foundation of European integration as based on the market mechanism. The contribution asks whether the change towards a ‘more economic approach’ to competition law implies an alienation of competition law from societal challenges. The contribution considers whether this interpretation, with competition law being such an integral part of the European economic constitution, should change in light of the constitutional goal of a European social market economy. To do so, the article sketches the fundamental place of competition law in the European economic constitution and shows how its interpretation has become more economics‐based. It highlights some of the problematic aspects of this change and analyzes these findings from the perspective of an economic constitution serving a social market economy.

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“…Firstly, all types of laws and policies as well as public and private actors should contribute to the climate change emergency, the so‐called ‘all hands‐on deck’ approach (Ellison 2020); there is no reason why competition law should be sheltered from this. Such a comprehensive approach requires the adoption of a maximalist rather than a minimalist perspective (Kingston 2011; Lianos 2018, pp. 161:213; Nowag 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Lianos, 2018, pp. 161:213;Kingston, 2011;Nowag, 2016). While the paper admits that competition law is not a direct tool to tackle the climate emergency, this area of law, nevertheless, has a role to play.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition Law and Sustainability in the EU: Modelling the Perspectives of National Competition Authorities

Malinauskaitė

Erdem

2023

J of Common Market Studies

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Debates have surged in the EU on how EU competition policy can best support the European Green Deal. In the theoretical and practical scopes, non-economic factors in competition law analysis are problematic due to the difficulty in measuring the concrete benefits of trade-offs. The National Competition Authorities (NCAs) rather than the European Commission (EC) are leading the 'sustainability in competition law' debates, which is the focus of this paper. Therefore, this study reviews the current status quo of all NCAs' positions concerning sustainability-related matters by classifying them into four typologies in terms of their willingness to incorporate sustainability in their assessments. It further identifies four emerging NCAs models which seem to divert from the EC's view.This can be problematic in ensuring the uniform application of competition law. IntroductionSustainability is at the heart of the European Union (EU) with its pressing challenges to decouple economic development from environmental degradation. In light of the European Green Deal (EGD), which is a long-term plan to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, inter alia, Commissioner Vestager (2020) noted that "the time has come to launch a European debate on how EU competition policy can best support the Green Deal". Indeed, the European Commission (EC) signals its intention towards more sustainability-friendly competition practices (European Economic and Social Committee, 2022; European Commission, 2022a) by committing to providing concrete examples of how sustainability objectives can be pursued by different types of cooperation agreements (i.e. joint production/purchasing agreements, standard setting etc.) without restricting competition. The EC in its long-awaited Draft Horizontal Cooperation Agreements Guidelines (Draft Guidelines) incorporated a new chapter on how to self-assess sustainability agreements (European Commission, 2022b). Apart from these draft guidelines and draft of the revised R&D and Specialisation Block Exemption Regulations (known as 'HBERs') (European Commission, 2022c), the EC is not leading this debate, most likely due to limited cases in this field. Instead, the National Competition Authorities (NCAs) have taken a lead for some time now, which is the focus of this paper.

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Greening EU Competition Law and Policy

Cited by 25 publications

References 0 publications

Reflecting Environmental Protection Requirements in the EU State Aid Policy

Reflecting Environmental Protection Requirements in the EU State Aid Policy

Rethinking Competition Law within the European Economic Constitution

Competition Law and Sustainability in the EU: Modelling the Perspectives of National Competition Authorities

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