Chillin'Competition

A number of writing and teaching commitments have kept us busy in the past few months, and we look forward to exchanging views about them on the blog, as it slowly comes out of hibernation.

I will start with one of which I am particularly proud, and which is available here.

It is a piece, written jointly with Damien Neven (Graduate Institute and former Chief Competition Economist at DG Comp) and that is forthcoming in Vincent Verouden’s and Philipp Werner’s second edition of their monumental treatise on the Law and Economics of State Aid Control (I take this opportunity to thank both for the invitation!).

Philipp and Vincent assigned us a most exciting task: explain how the EU State aid control regime and its distinctive features have influenced other legal systems around the world.

Inevitably, our chapter covers a great deal of legal ground: the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (in addition to the UK Subsidy Control Act), the EEA regime and, finally, the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation.

We structure the discussion around the two mechanisms through which the EU regime influences other legal systems: convergence and unilateral action.

Convergence occurs through the trade agreements concluded by the EU (the UK Subsidy Control Act being a great example). This trend is complemented with unilateral action which complements and completes the effective enforcement of subsidy control the ‘EU way’.

It would be wonderful to get your thoughts on the piece: do not hesitate to get in touch via email.