The importance of State aid rules of the European Union in the context of the global economic and financial crisis

During the financial crisis the European Commission interpreted the rules on state aids in a flexible way, making legally possible for EU Member States to support the financial sector. This approach was justified by the need to preserve the banking sector from the concrete danger of a downfall, as well as by the aim of preventing unnecessary and disproportionate distortions of competition among financial institutions, within the European single market. The same approach was later adopted also in the so called real economy, in order to restore a normal lending activity to non-financial undertakings. However, only the Member States with sound public finances receive a competitive benefit from the flexible interpretation and application of state aid rules. On the other hand, the Member States whose public accounts figures are close to, or beyond, the limits on government deficit (3% of GDP) and debt (60% of GDP) submitted to an excessive deficit procedure, and those who are submitted to a formal excessive deficit procedure, have little or no chance to grant any form of aid to national undertakings. Since the financial crisis is about to come to an end, the Commission should abandon its flexible approach to state aid rules, that is likely to increase the asymmetries among the economies of different Member States.