The State Aid Control System In EC Competition Law

EC State aid control system is an important part of the EC competition law, which plays an indispensable role in the formation of the EC Common Market. The essence of state aid control lies in that the state aid, as an industrial policy, should be regulated by the competition law, which not only shows a value, but also reflects a choice of the path that the Community objectives must be based on the maintenance of the order of competition and be realized through the dynamism inspired by the fair competition from the market. Such an idea and system should be learned by China in the process of economic transition. Up to now, there aren't any works discussing the EC state aid control system, but only a few articles cover a rough introduction. This paper, based on a large number of texts of European Commission and the jurisprudence of European Court of Justice, gives a comprehensive interpretation of the state aid control system in EC competition law both in theory and practice, intending to reveal more profoundly the significance, essence and something worth to reflect of this system.This paper consists of five parts:The first part summarizes the basic theory of the state aid control system in EC competition law. First of all, this paper starts from the basic theory of the state aid control, describes the EC's position of the priority of competition policy in the event of a conflict between industrial policy and competition policy, and further reveals that the objective of the state aid control system is to maintain the order of competition and fulfill the Community objectives. And then, this paper explain the background and process of the EC state aid control system in detail.The second part combined with the rules of EC Treaty and the practice of European Commission and European Court of Justice, defines the notion of state aid in four aspects: firstly, aid in any form; secondly, granted by a member state or through state resources; thirdly, distorting or threatening to distort competition - selectivity; fourthly, affecting trade between member states.The third part classifies and summarizes the state aid exemption. According to the different intensity and conditions, the state aid exemption is classified into the following five levels: the absolute exemption, the relative exemption, the permitted exemption, the block exemption and the de minis aid.The fourth part focuses on the elaboration of state aid control procedures. By analyzing the procedure regulations and a large number of specific cases, this part reveals the roles of European Commission, European Court of Justice and the courts of Member States in the entire state aid control system,The fifth part discourse the state aid relief measure–recovery of state aid. This measure plays a significant role in remedying the illegal state aid, even with a lot of problems in practice. Therefore, this part clarify the essential requirements of aid recovery as an important component of the state aid control system by explaining the objective, the evolution of rules, the restrictions, the implementation and the consequences of violating the recovery decision.