Chillin'Competition

State Aid Control and the Financial Crisis – Quentin Metz

The present dissertation analyzes the Commission’s state aid policy in the context of the financial crisis. To this end, the dissertation is divided into four sections. The first section describes the causes of the financial crisis and recalls the essential components of EU State aid control. The second section reviews the different soft law instruments issued by the European Commission during the crisis, i.e. the Banking Communication, the Recapitalisation Communication, the Impaired Assets Communication and the Restructuring Communication. The third section analyses the Commission’s evolving case-law under Article 107(3) c) and b) both before and after September 2008. It focuses on cases such as Crédit Lyonnais; Northern Rock; Banco di Napoli; Fortis; Dexia and Commerzbank. The fourth and final section seeks to compare the main types of rescuing measures adopted by the Member States (in Belgium, France, Germany and the United Kingdom), and tries to ascertain which national measures are preferred by the Commission.