Keywords
Summary

Keywords

State aid - Examination by the Commission - Power to adopt guidelines - Measures proposed to the Member States in the context of the constant review of the aid schemes governed by the guidelines - Acceptance by the Member States - Binding effect - Decisions on the ceilings for aid cover constituting an integral part of the guidelines on regional aid

(Arts 87 EC and 88 EC)

Summary

$$In the exercise of the powers conferred on it by Articles 87 EC and 88 EC, the Commission may adopt guidelines designed to indicate how it intends, under those articles, to exercise its discretion in regard to new aid or in regard to existing systems of aid.

When they are based on Article 88(1) EC, those guidelines constitute one element of the regular and periodic cooperation under which the Commission, in conjunction with the Member States, must keep under constant review existing systems of aid and propose to them any appropriate measures required by the progressive development or by the functioning of the common market. As also follows from Article 19(1) of Regulation No 659/1999, in the case where those proposals for appropriate measures are accepted by a Member State, that Member State will be bound by those measures.

In particular, so far as the guidelines governing regional aid are concerned, decisions such as those fixing the ceilings for aid cover and updating such cover constitute one of the stages in a process designed to lay down the general conditions governing Community examination of regional aid schemes. Those decisions consequently form an integral part of the guidelines on regional aid and have, in themselves, binding force only on condition that they have been accepted by the Member States.

( see paras 27-29, 33-35 )