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The European Commission’s Reform Strategy

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Book cover Financing Services of General Economic Interest

Part of the book series: Legal Issues of Services of General Interest ((LEGAL))

Abstract

The complementary link between EU competition rules and SGEI is clearly confirmed by the Treaty of Lisbon 2009 with the new Article 14 TFEU, Protocol No 26 on SGI and Article 36 CFREU. Among the competition rules, State aid rules play a very important role in order to ensure a sustainable financing of SG(E)I by the Member States. Such a balanced approach is the key milestone of the European Commission’s strategy to reform the rules applicable to public service compensation, by giving them more clarification and more adaptability, in order to promote higher quality of service. The question remains whether such a strategy is sufficient to ensure an effective implementation of these rules by the public authorities, notably local entities.

Many thanks to Lara Thomes, LLM in European Law of the Free University of Brussels (ULB—European Law Institute), for her active collaboration in collecting and reviewing the most relevant EU documents referred to in this chapter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Commission Staff Working Paper—Impact Assessment of the Reform of the EU Rules applicable to State aid in the form of public services compensation: SEC(2011)1581 final of 20 December 2011, p. 12.

  2. 2.

    Ibidem. See also Bauby and Similie 2010.

  3. 3.

    See Commission Staff Working Paper—Autumn 2011 Update: SEC(2011)847 final of 1 December 2011, accompanying the State Aid Scoreboard: COM(2011) 848 final of 1 December 2011.

  4. 4.

    See European Parliament resolution of 5 July 2011 on the future of social services of general interest; for a general comment on it by its own Rapporteur: see De Rossa 2011, pp. 18–21.

  5. 5.

    See Commission Decision of 28 November 2005 on the application of Article 86(2) of the EC Treaty to State aid in the form of public service compensation granted to certain undertakings entrusted with the operation of services of general economic interest (notified under document number C(2005) 2673), in OJ L 2005 312/67 and Community framework for State aid in the form of public service compensation, in OJ 2005 C 297/4. See also: Commission Directive of 16 November 2006 on the transparency of financial relations between Member States and public undertakings as well as on financial transparency within certain undertakings (codified version), in OJ 2006 L 318/17.

  6. 6.

    CJEU, Case C-280/00, Altmark Trans GmbH and Regierungspräsidium Magdeburg v Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Altmark GmbH, and Oberbundesanwalt beim Bundesverwaltungsgericht [2003] ECR I-7747.

  7. 7.

    See Szyszczak 2004.

  8. 8.

    Idot and Géradin 2008.

  9. 9.

    Rodrigues 2009, pp. 255–266.

  10. 10.

    Ross 2000, pp. 22–38.

  11. 11.

    Bauby 2011, pp. 19–36 and Szyszczak 2011, pp. 13–16.

  12. 12.

    Prosser 2005.

  13. 13.

    CJEU, Case C-202/88 France v Commission [1991] ECR I-1223, para 12, and CJEU, Case C-159/04 Commission v France [1997] ECR I-5815, para 55.

  14. 14.

    See COM(2005) 107 final of 7 June 2005. On this Action Plan, see: Chérot 2005.

  15. 15.

    See http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/competition/state_aid/l26115_en.htm.

  16. 16.

    See COM (2011) 900 final.

  17. 17.

    See sect 1.1 of COM(2011)900.

  18. 18.

    On this report, see: Rodrigues 2010.

  19. 19.

    See the chapters by Clarke and Sánchez Graells on the procurement rules. See also: Bovis 2005 and Sánchez Graells 2011.

  20. 20.

    For an overview of this proposal, see: Chérot 2011.

  21. 21.

    See COM (2011) 146 final.

  22. 22.

    See: SEC(2010) 1545 final of 7 December 2010; on this document: see Rodrigues 2011.

  23. 23.

    See OJEU No. L-7 and No. C-8. Szyszczak 2012.

  24. 24.

    See C (2011) 9404 final.

  25. 25.

    See C (2011) 9380 final.

  26. 26.

    See C (2011) 9406 final.

  27. 27.

    See C (2011) 9381 draft.

  28. 28.

    Commission Regulation on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid granted to undertakings providing services of general economic interest, OJ 2012 L 114/8.

  29. 29.

    See Article 2.1 (a) and (c) of the Decision and the chapter by von de Gronden and Rusu.

  30. 30.

    See para 14 of the Framework.

  31. 31.

    See para 39 of the Framework.

  32. 32.

    As stated in GC, Case T-168/01 GlaxoSmithKline [2006] ECR-II 2969, para 118.

  33. 33.

    See: Odudu 2009.

  34. 34.

    See Opinion of AG Tizzano delivered on 8 May 2001 in CJEU, Case C-53/00 Ferring SA v Agence centrale des organismes de sécurité sociale (ACOSS) [2001] ECR I-9067, para 51 and GC, Métropole télévision (M6) and Télévision française 1 SA (TF1) v European Commission nyr; GC Joined Cases T-568/08 and T-573/08, nyr, paras 139–140.

  35. 35.

    See Sect 2.9 of the Framework.

  36. 36.

    See para 56 of the Framework.

  37. 37.

    OJ 2009 C 85/1, replacing a previous noticed published in 1995.

  38. 38.

    See European Court of Auditors, Do the Commission’s procedures ensure effective management of State aid control?, Special Report, No 15-2011.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sorbonne Research Institute for International and European Law (IREDIES), Sorbonne Law School, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 12, Place du Panthéon, 75005, Paris, France

    Stéphane Rodrigues

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  1. , School of Law, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, United Kingdom

    Erika Szyszczak

  2. , Faculty of Law, Radboud University, Comeniuslaan 4, Nijmegen, 6525 HP, Netherlands

    Johan Willem van de Gronden

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Rodrigues, S. (2013). The European Commission’s Reform Strategy. In: Szyszczak, E., van de Gronden, J. (eds) Financing Services of General Economic Interest. Legal Issues of Services of General Interest. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-6704-906-1_5

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