# EUR-Lex - 52011DC0848 - EN

*|*

# 52011DC0848

**REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION State Aid Scoreboard Report on state aid granted by the EU Member States- Autumn 2011 Update - /* COM/2011/0848 final */**

			*

			*

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION

State Aid
Scoreboard
Report on state aid granted by the EU Member States
- Autumn 2011 Update -

TABLE OF CONTENTS

State aid in the context of the economic
crisis................................................................................. 5

1........... State aid in 2010............................................................................................................ 5

2........... Trends and patterns of state aid
expenditure on non-crisis aid in the Member States......... 6

2.1........ Trend of levels of non-crisis
state aid to industry and services........................................... 7

2.2........ Non-crisis state aid earmarked
for horizontal objectives of common interest..................... 8

3........... State aid in the context of the
financial and economic crisis............................................... 8

3.1........ Trends in the approval and use of
state aid measures for the financial sector..................... 8

3.2........ Approved amounts and amounts used
under the temporary framework............................ 9

4........... Trends of State aid expenditure
by type of aid measures................................................ 10

4.1........ Number of aid measures............................................................................................... 10

4.2........ Aid volumes - around 21% of aid
to industry and services is block exempted................. 11

5........... Enforcing the state aid rules........................................................................................... 11

ANNEX..................................................................................................................................... 13

Summary
of the Report's conclusions

In 2010,
total expenditure on non-crisis aid was relatively stable in the EU when
compared to the previous year. Member States' efforts continued to reduce their
overall aid levels and some of them were able to substantially decrease their
state aid spending. Overall, the trend over the period 2005-2010 shows a drop on
the non-crisis aid expenditure.

Aid
earmarked for horizontal objectives of common interest remained high while some
Member States were able to further reduce aid granted for sectoral development.
Aid granted under block exemption also increased when compared to previous
years. Overall, the amount of aid which was granted either under block
exemption or through schemes was at a high level whereas the level of
individually granted aid, authorised by a Commission decision, remained at a
low volume.

Activities
to recover illegal state aid continued and more aid illegally granted was
recovered from the beneficiaries, while some further cases were brought to court.

In 2010 the
number of financial crisis support measures approved by the Commission
decreased substantially compared to the two previous years. However, most of
the measures approved in the past are still operational.

The amount
actually used in 2010 for recapitalisation and asset relief measures is highly
concentrated in few Member State while a large part of the amount used in the
form of guarantees and liquidity measures is still outstanding.

In 2010,
only a few new aid measures were granted under the Temporary Union Framework. The
majority of aid measures were already approved in 2009 and Member States
granted signicantly less aid under the Temporary Union Framework in 2010 as
compared to 2009. Furthermore, the aid amount used remained significantly below
the approved aid amount, mainly since the development of the economic situation
was not very predictable and Member States were cautious in granting aid under
the Temporary Union Framework by applying strict conditions.

The autumn 2011 update of the State Aid
Scoreboard ("the Scoreboard") provides a synopsis of the information
which Member States submitted this year in their annual report on state aid
expenditure in 2010.

For reasons of methodology[1] and to avoid creating a distorted
picture of trends in state aid expenditure, the Scoreboard distinguishes
between non-crisis aid on the one hand (i.e. all aid granted under the normal EU
state aid rules) and crisis aid on the other hand (i.e. all aid granted to
financial instutions and the real economy under the temporary state aid
measures in response to the financial and economic crisis).[2]

As regards non-crisis aid, the Scoreboard, in
addition to a synopsis on expenditure in 2010, provides an overview of the
trends in state aid expenditure to industry and services (comparing the period
2005-2007 with the period 2008-2010) and by type of aid measures, i.e. block
exempted aid, schemes and individual measures (whether individual applications
of schemes or ad hoc decisions).

As regards crisis aid, the Scoreboard provides
an overview of amounts approved (as from 1 October 2008 until 1 October
2011) and amounts used (as from 1 October 2008 until 31 December 2010) per
type of instrument (recapitalisation, guarantee, impaired assets, liquidity
measures). Furthermore, the report provides information on aid granted under
the Temporary Community framework for State aid
measures to support access to finance in the current financial and economic
crisis ("the temporary framework")[3] in the form of the approved
amount of aid and the amount used. The Scoreboard also provides an update on
achievements in the field of enforcement of state aid rules.

The Scoreboard consists of two parts: first
a summary Report, adopted by the College of Commissioners focussing on key
facts, conclusions, trends and patterns with regard to state aid granted by
Member States and, secondly, a Staff Working Document, attached to the Report,
"Facts and figures on state aid in the EU Member States"
("SWD"), providing the factual background.

It is noted that the EFTA Surveillance
Authority also publishes an annual scoreboard[4]
which publishes updates on the volume of state aid granted in Iceland,
Liechtenstein and Norway.

State aid in
the context of the economic crisis

In 2010, EU GDP grew from its negative
level in 2009 towards a positive though relatively low level, below 1% on
average.

In the light of the ongoing crisis situation
in the financial sector, Member States continued to provide aid to banks in
order to inject further confidence into the sector and enabled banks in
particular to continue to provide credit to the real economy.

The economic situation of many businesses
had gradually improved throughout 2010, which meant that Member States needed to
grant less crisis aid to the real economy.

Overall, the Commission's state aid control
policy was one of the key factors ensuring that the implementation of the
unprecedented rescue measures was achieved in a coordinated manner, without
creating undue competition distortion in the internal market.

1.           State
aid in 2010

In 2010, Member States granted a total of approximately
€ 73.7 billion in the form of non-crisis aid, or in relative terms 0.6% of EU[5] GDP.[6] Crisis-related measures, i.e.
aid granted to the financial sector through recapitalisation and impaired asset
measures, amounted to € 121.3 billion (1% of EU GDP) while the overall
volume of average outstanding guarantees and liquidity amounts to € 983.9
billion (8% of EU GDP). With respect to aid granted under the temporary
framework, the amount used was approximately € 11.7 billion in 2010 or 0.9% of
EU GDP. On 1 October 2011[7],
all EU-15[8]
Member States and Cyprus, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and
Slovenia had had financial crisis measures approved by the Commission, and all
Member States except Cyprus had aid measures approved under the temporary
framework.

Non-crisis aid can be further broken down into
aid to industry and services, which amounted to a total of approximately € 61
billion or 0.5% of EU GDP[9]
in 2010, and aid to agriculture, amounting to approximately € 10.3 billion or 0.08%
of EU GDP, fisheries, approximately € 0.18 billion or 0.001% of EU GDP,
and transport, at approximately € 3.2 billion or 0.02% of EU GDP.

Member States reported that aid to railways[10] amounted to € 27.2 billion or 0.2%[11] of EU GDP in 2010.[12]

The five largest grantors of non-crisis aid
accounted for approximately € 45.7 billion, which represents roughly two-thirds
of the total non-crisis aid. Germany granted a volume of approximately € 15.9
billion, or 21.6% of total non-crisis aid, followed by France (approximately € 15.4
billion or 20.8%), Spain (€ 5 billion or 6.8%), the United Kingdom (€ 4.8
billion or 6.5%) and Italy (€ 4.6 billion or 6.2%). However, a different
picture is revealed when reporting on the aid volume as a percentage of GDP.
Hungary granted aid representing almost 2.3% of its national GDP, Malta 1.4%,
Finland 1.1%, Slovenia 1.1% and Ireland 1.0%.

2.           Trends
and patterns of state aid expenditure on non-crisis aid in the Member States

Figure 1[13]: Total state aid
(non-crisis aid) as % of GDP (EU-27; data as of 1992)

Seen from a long-term prespective, the
overall level of state aid has been on a downward trend since the 1980s. From approximately
2% of EU GDP during the 1980s, it fell to about 1% of EU GDP in the 1990s and
decreased further to around 0.5% to 0.6% of EU GDP in the years 2004 – 2008,
with an exceptional peak in 2006. Since 2008, the level of aid has begun to show
a moderate increase and stood at approximately 0.6% of EU GDP in 2010. Concerning
the reasons for the past decline in state aid expenditure, reference is made to
previous Scoreboard reports.[14]

On a short-term view, the level of state
aid expenditure has been roughly stable as from 2008, which is also suggested
by the underlying trend, i.e. from about 0.062%[15] to 0.60%[16] of EU GDP. It appears to
indicate that, while Member States largely maintained their state aid
discipline, their response to the financial and economic crisis contributed to
a slightly higher aid level with respect to non-crisis aid in 2010.
Furthermore, it also shows that Member States have maintained a targeted and
well balanced state aid policy as regards non-crisis related measures.

Due to the particular features associated
with aid to agriculture, fisheries and transport, the following sections on
levels and orientation of non-crisis aid (2.1 and 2.2) only deal with aid to
industry and services.

2.1.        Trend of levels of non-crisis state aid to industry and
services

Crisis aid measures, which are discussed
separately in chapter 3, were not taken into account when analysing aid granted
to industry and services; this was in order to avoid a very distortive picture
on aid expenditure to industry and services. Furthermore, the different
methodology for calculating the aid amount granted to the financial institutions
justified this exclusion.

The trend in aid expenditure to industry
and services in the EU has shown a moderate increase in the period 2008-2010
compared to the previous period 2005-2007. On average, aid expenditure amounted
to approximately € 59.9 billion or 0.49% of EU GDP, while it had stood at € 52.8
billion or 0.43% of EU GDP in the previous period. First, it shows that the
financial and economic crisis has apparently had some impact on aid expenditure
for non-crisis aid measures through which Member States gave more support in
particular to regional development and research and development and innovation
("R&D&I"). At this stage, it would be too soon to conclude
that the increase in the trend, which is first seen after aid levels have come
down, is part of a long-term trend that is beginning or whether it reflects the
particular situation of the financial and economic crisis during which higher
aid levels could be expected for a short period.

To say that Member States have generally
been able to continue their efforts to keep overall aid levels under control
can be supported by the fact that 11 Member States reduced their aid levels
compared to the EU trend average.[17]
With respect to the other Member States for which an increase of the aid level
was identified, most of the increase can be accounted for by aid earmarked
under horizontal objectives, while sectoral aid decreased further in 2010.

The small downward move in state aid
expenditure for industry and services, decreasing by approximately 0.01%
between 2009 and 2010, can be largely explained by an increase in expenditure
for regional development and other horizontal objectives. For instance, Greece,
Lithuania and Romania granted more regional aid. France, Luxembourg and the UK earmarked
more aid for other horizontal objectives. At this stage, however, it is too
early to know whether this short-term downward move in state aid expenditure to
industry and services represents the beginning of a change in the long-term
trend. However, it does indicate that Member States have been able to respond
flexibly to changing economic needs. Further increase of aid granted under
block exemption[18]
and the continuing use of schemes by Member States indicate that these tools
have enabled Member States to grant aid to a large number of enterprises
without further individual notifications to the Commission.

2.2.        Non-crisis state aid earmarked for horizontal objectives
of common interest

It is recalled that the concept of
horizontal aid, which covers aid that is not granted to specific sectors of the
economy, derives from the Treaty[19];
this leaves room for the Commission to make policy choices according to which
state aid can be considered compatible with the internal market in order to provide
effective support to common policy objectives. Most prominent is the aid
earmarked for research, development and innovation ("R&D&I"),
safeguarding the environment and fostering energy saving and promoting the use
of renewable energies; it is followed by regional development, aid to SMEs,
creation of employment and promotion of training.

In 2010, a total of approximately € 51.9 billion,
or 0.42% of EU GDP, was granted in the form of aid earmarked under horizontal
objectives, which represented 85% of total aid to industry and services. The
three most prominent objectives, regional development (24.3% of total aid to
industry and services), environmental protection (23.7%) and R&D&I (17.4%)
together accounted for roughly two thirds of total aid to industry and
services. This high aid volume earmarked for horizontal aid is also consistant
with the general trend, which rose by approximately 2.2% between the periods
2005-2007 and 2008-2010. Moreover, in 19 Member States the aid level earmarked for
horizontal objectives exceeded the EU average, while it was below 50% in only
two Member States.

With respect to sectoral aid in 2010, which
includes rescue and restructuring aid, the aid volume represented 15% of total
aid to industry and services; it decreased further to € 9.1 billion or 0.07% of
EU GDP. The main reason for this development is that less aid is being granted
to the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors.

Overall, this long-term trend shows that
Member States continued in their efforts to direct aid towards horizontal
objectives of common interest.

3.           State
aid in the context of the financial and economic crisis

3.1.        Trends
in the approval and use of state aid measures for the financial sector

The turmoil in the financial markets which
was triggered by the financial crisis in 2008 called for broad-based
intervention by European governments in order to curb the adverse effects of
the shock. State aid to financial institutions was crucial as a means of restoring
confidence in the financial sector with the aim of avoiding a systemic crisis.

In the period between 1 October 2008[20] and 1 October 2011, the
Commission approved aid to the financial sector for an overall amount of € 4506.5
billion (36.7% of EU GDP). The bulk of the aid was authorised in 2008, when € 3457
billion (27.7% of EU GDP) were approved, mainly under the form of guarantees on
banks' bonds and short-term liabilities. Since 2008 the number of State
interventions submitted to the Commission's approval gradually decreased, while
as far as the instruments were concerned, the aid approved after 2008 focused
more on recapitalisation of banks and impaired asset relief than on guarantees.

In the period 2008-2010[21], the volume of aid actually
used by Member States stood at € 1608 billion[22], accounting for 13.1 % of EU
GDP. Guarantees and liquidity measures account for € 1199 billion or 9.8 % of
EU GDP. The remainder of the aid used refers to recapitalisation and impaired assets
measures which amount to € 409 billion (3.3% of EU GDP).

Financial Crisis Aid approved/used in
2010

In 2010, the Commission authorised aid for
an overall amount of € 383.8 billion, representing 3.1% of EU GDP. The new aid
approved is concentrated in a few countries and involves recapitalisation of € 183.9
billion, guarantees for € 55.4 billion, impaired assets relief for € 77.9
billion and liquidity measures for € 66.7 billion.

The overall volume of aid used in 2010 for
recapitalisation and impaired assets stood at € 121.3 billion (1% of EU GDP).
New capital injections accounted for € 87.8 billion (0.7% of EU GDP) while impaired
asset relief measures accounted for € 33.6 billion (0.3% of EU GDP). With
regards to guarantees and liquidity measures the average outstanding amount for
the year 2010 stood at 983.9 billion (8% of GDP) of which € 922 billion (7.5%
of EU GDP) relates to guarantees while € 61.9 billion (0.5% of EU GDP) relates
to liquidity measures.

3.2.        Approved
amounts and amounts used under the temporary framework

Context and scope

On 17 December 2008, in response to the
tightening of access to credit which companies faced as a result of the
financial crisis, the Commission adopted the temporary framework. It placed the
focus on, first, maintaining continuity in companies' access to finance and,
second, preparing the ground for sustainable long-term growth by encouraging
investments. Furthermore, some of the rules of the existing guidelines were
simplified, for example by introducing higher ceilings for risk capital
investments. The temporary framework is open to support all sectors of the
economy, but excludes aid that would remedy pre-existing structural problems
and hence does not apply to companies that were in difficulty before the crisis.

The temporary framework is to be seen as
part of a wider Commission response to the economic crisis, namely the European
Economic Recovery Plan.[23]

In the light of the high volatility of the
financial markets, coupled with uncertainty about the economic outlook, the
Commission decided at the end of 2010 to prolong certain measures set out in
the temporary framework for one year, while phasing-out the possibility to
grant a limited compatible aid amount of € 500,000 per company and tightening
the conditions on which Member States can grant aid under the temporary
framework.[24]

Measures approved under the temporary framework

In 2010, the Commission authorised 6 new
schemes and one new ad hoc aid measure, and prolonged 10 schemes under
the temporary framework[25],
which amounted to a total approved volume of aid of € 1.6 billion (0.01% of EU
GDP). It concerned one scheme for aid up to € 500,000 per company (1
Member State), 1 subsidised guarantee scheme (1 Member State), 1 risk capital
scheme (1 Member State) and 3 Member States facilitated export activities
through 3 export credit schemes. Furthermore, 10 new aid measures were granted
under the temporary framework to farmers. With respect to the prolonged
schemes, it concerned 3 schemes (3 Member States), 2 subsidised guarantee
measures (2 Member States), 2 schemes for subsidised loan interests (2 Member
States) and 3 schemes facilitating export activities.

Since the entry into force of the temporary
framework, the total approved volume which the Commission authorised under its
provisions amounted to approximately € 82.9 billion.[26]

Aid amount used in 2010

In 2010, the aid amount used under the
temporary framework stood at approximately € 11.8 billion, or 0.09%
of EU GDP.

Most Member States preferred to use the
tool of the limited aid amount (roughly € 5.3 billion), followed by the
subsidised guarantees (€ 2.9 billion), subsidised interest rate loans (€ 2.7
billion) and risk capital aid (€ 0.77 billion). Subsidised interest rate loans
for the production of green products were not used.

The total amount of aid used under the
temporary framework since it entered into force is about € 32.8 billion.

For more detail on aid granted under the
temporary framework, see chapter 3.2 of the SWD.

4.           Trends of State
aid expenditure by type of aid measures

4.1.        Number
of aid measures

In 2010, the number of new block exempted
aid measures introduced by Member States dropped significantly by almost half
compared to 2009. However, the proportion of aid granted through block
exemption schemes and individual aid has remained stable. The main reason for the
falling numbers is the fact that Member States created new aid measures under
the General Block Exemption Regulation ("GBER"), which entered into
force in September 2008, and largely replaced existing aid measures which were part
of the phasing-out of the previous block exemption regulations for employment
aid, training aid and aid to SMEs and partly also regional aid. National budget
restrictions in 2010 may have been a further factor in the reluctance of the Member
States to create new aid measures under the block exemption.

4.2.        Aid
volumes - around 21% of aid to industry and services is block exempted

Block exempted aid increased further by
about € 1 billion to stand at approximately € 12.6 billion,
or 0.1% of EU GDP, accounting for 21% of total aid to industry and services in
2010. The main contributors to the increase in block exempted aid in 2010 were
regional aid, R&D&I and employment aid, while block exempted aid
earmarked for SMEs and training were decreasing, but not compensating for the
total increase in block exempted aid. It is recalled that Member States
continued to phase out aid measures previously granted under the sectoral block
exemption regulations and replaced them by corresponding GBER measures, whereby
the new scope of the measure was often extended as now permitted under the GBER
rules.

5.           Enforcing
the state aid rules

Unlawful aid[27]

In the period 2000-2010, the Commission
took 980 decisions on unlawful aid. In about 22% of unlawful aid cases[28] the Commission intervened by
taking a negative decision on an incompatible aid measure. Such negative
decisions normally order the Member State concerned to recover the illegally
awarded aid. In a further 3% of unlawful aid cases[29], the Commission attached
conditions to the decisions. This intervention rate of about 25% for unlawful
aid is roughly ten times higher than the rate of negative and conditional
decisions in duly notified cases. More than half of the interventions were in
the industry and services sector, slightly less than one quarter were in
agriculture and the remainder in fisheries, transport and coal.

Recovery of aid

Further progress has been made towards the
executing pending recovery decisions. The total number of pending recovery
cases stood at 55 cases (compared to 94 cases at the end of 2004). The amount
of illegal and incompatible aid recovered since 2000 has further increased and
amounted to more than € 11.5 billion on 30 June 2011. This means that the
percentage of illegal and incompatible aid still to be recovered has fallen
from 75% at the end of 2004 to around 18.6% on 30 June 2011.

Enforcement of State Aid Law:
Cooperation with national courts

In the follow-up to the Notice on the
Enforcement of State Aid Law by National Courts of 2009[30], advocacy efforts have
intensified: an information package was published on DG Competition's
website[31]
and a booklet[32]
to assist judges in their daily work was widely distributed. Specific training
for national judges has also been organised.[33]

Ex-post monitoring

With the entry into force of the GBER, an
even larger number of aid measures are no longer subject to the notification
obligation. The results showed that, overall, the part of the existing State
aid architecture allowing the approval of aid schemes and enabling Member
States to implement aid measures under the GBER and BERs still functions
reasonably well. However, a number of individual and horizontal issues were
identified which need to be followed up with Member States.

ANNEX

Commission Staff Working Document
"Facts and figures on state aid in the EU Member States"

[1]               While in previous editions of the Autumn Scoreboard
one figure expressed the aid volume in absolute value and in relative value (%
of GDP), this year's report distinguishes between non-crisis aid, crisis aid to
the financial sector and aid granted under the Temporary Community Framework
and provides separate figures (in absolute and relative terms) accordingly.
Read more detail on methodology in the corresponding note in the Staff Working
Document accompanying this Report.

[2]               To calculate crisis aid, this Scoreboard, in line
with the Commission's Staff Working Paper on the effects of the temporary state
aid rules adopted in the context of the financial and economic crisis
(http://ec.europa.eu/competition/publications/reports/temporary_stateaid_rules_en.html),
uses only two concepts: the committed amount of aid and the used amount of aid.
The commited amount (pledged volume of aid) respresents the overall maximum
amount of state aid measures set up by Member States and approved by the
Commission. The used amount of the aid expresses the actual volume of the aid
measure which Member States implemented. The methodology used for calculating
crisis aid is further explained in the Commission's Staff Working Paper. For
all other aid, in addition to approved amounts and used amounts, Member States
have, like in previous Scoreboards, also reported the aid element and total
expenditure is expressed accordingly, both in absolute volume and in % of GDP,
in order to present a comparable set of information.

[3]               Consolidated version of the Communication from the
Commission – Temporary Community framework for
State aid measures to support access to finance in the current financial and
economic crisis ; OJ
C 83, 7.4.2009, p. 1; as amended by OJ
C 261, 31.10.2009, p. 1, and OJ
C 303, 15.12.2009, p. 6.

[4]               See http://www.eftasurv.int/press--publications/scoreboards/state-aid-scoreboards/

[5]               EU means all Member States of the EU.

[6]               The total covers aid to manufacturing, services,
coal, agriculture, fisheries and part of the transport sector but excludes, due
to the lack of comparable data, aid to the railway sector and aid for
compensation for services of general economic interest. Aid amounts refer to
the aid element (or gross grant equivalent in case of guarantees or loans) contained
in a state aid measure unless stated otherwise (for more details see the
methodological note of the SWD).

[7]               In order to give a complete
picture on crisis aid, the whole of the period dating from the adoption of the
Commission's crisis measures to a cut-off date of 1 October 2011 is used as the
reference period for this part of the report.

[8]               EU-15 comprises Member States that joined the EU
before 2004.

[9]               Coal, as part of sectoral aid and hence included in
aid to industry and services, amounted to € 2.9 billion which
represented 4.9% of total aid to industry and services.

[10]             While information on aid to industry and services is
collected from Member States pursuant to Annex III A of Commission Regulation
(EC) No 794/2004 (OJ L 140, 30.4.2004, p. 1), the information on aid to
railways is collected following a different concept which hence does not allow
aggregating these data in any of the totals.

[11]             At the moment of drafting this report, information on
railway subsidies was submitted by Austria, Belgium Denmark,
Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Latvia,
Portugagl and Sweden.

[12]             Read more detail on aid to the transport sector in paragraph
2.3.5 of the SWD.

[13]             Source:
DG Competition; GDP figures: Eurostat.

[14]             Autumn 2010 update, COM(2010) 701; Autumn 2009 update, COM (2009)
661 final. A copy can be downloaded from DG Competition's website:
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/studies_reports/archive/scoreboard_arch.html.

[15]             Period 2005-2007.

[16]             Period 2008-2010.

[17]             See figure 6 in the SWD.

[18]             Read more detail in chapter 4.

[19]             For instance, Article 107(3)(a) with respect to
regional aid, Article 107(3)(b) as to the execution of an important project of
common European interest.

[20]             2008 figures contain the budget approved for the
recapitalisation of Northern Rock in 2007.

[21]             2008 figures contain the budget used for the
recapitalisation of Northern Rock in 2007.

[22]             Including new aid as well as average outstanding
amounts.

[23]             Adopted in November 2008.

[24]             Communication of the Commission – Temporary Union
framework for State aid measures to support access to finance in the current
financial and economic crisis; OJ C 6, 11.1.2011, p.5.

[25]             Read more detail in chapter 3.2 of the SWD.

[26]             Cut-off date is 1 October 2011.

[27]             Article 108(3) TFEU obliges Member States not only to notify
state aid measures to the Commission before their implementation but also to
await the outcome of the Commission's investigation before implementing
notified measures. When either of these obligations is not respected, the state
aid measure is considered to be unlawful.

[28]             217 cases.

[29]             31 cases.

[30]             Commission Notice on the enforcement of State aid law
by National courts (OJ 85, 9.4.2009, p. 1)

[31]             http://ec.europa.eu/competition/court/state_aid.html

[32]             http://ec.europa.eu/competition/publications/state_aid/national_courts_booklet_en.pdf

[33]             Through the contact point, ec-amicus-state-aid@ec.europa.eu
several requests for information and opinion by national judges have been dealt
with.