Definition and Characteristics of State Aid

The paper deals with the definition of state aid and the determination of general characteristics of this institute particularly in terms of the decision-making practice of the Court of Justice and the Commission. Especially, this paper analyses the characteristics of state aid, i.e., “measure granted by a State or through State resources”, “economic advantage to particular undertaking (business) or sector (industry)”, “distortion of competition” and “effect on trade between the EU Member States”. Furthermore it also refers to a system of exceptions where it is possible to provide state aid.