The Commission adopted the State Aid Action Plan (“Less and better targeted state aid”) as a roadmap for reforming state aid control, aiming to refocus enforcement and modernize compatibility assessments over 2005–2009.
In response to the financial crisis, the Commission issued the Banking Communication, outlining how it would apply Article 107(3)(b) TFEU to support measures for financial institutions (e.g., guarantees, recapitalisations) while limiting distortions of competition.
The Commission adopted the Temporary Community framework to facilitate Member State aid supporting access to finance during the financial and economic crisis, setting common compatibility conditions for a time-limited set of measures.
The Commission launched State Aid Modernisation (SAM), setting objectives to foster growth, concentrate scrutiny on cases with the biggest internal-market impact, and streamline rules and decision-making.
The Commission adopted a revised General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), significantly expanding categories of aid that Member States can grant without prior notification, provided conditions are met—shifting enforcement toward higher-impact cases.
The Commission found that Romania’s payment of compensation under the Micula v Romania arbitral award constituted incompatible state aid and ordered Romania to recover the aid from the beneficiaries.
The Commission decided that Luxembourg granted illegal state aid to Fiat (Fiat Chrysler Finance Europe) through a tax ruling (SA.38375) and required recovery, marking a major step in the Commission’s tax-rulings enforcement line.
The Commission published a comprehensive Notice on the notion of State aid under Article 107(1) TFEU, consolidating guidance drawn from EU courts’ case law and Commission practice to aid consistent enforcement.
The Commission concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple (SA.38373) and ordered recovery of up to €13 billion plus interest, one of the most prominent and consequential state aid recovery decisions in the tax-rulings context.
Because Ireland had not recovered the illegal aid as required by the 2016 Apple decision, the Commission referred Ireland to the Court of Justice for failure to implement the recovery obligation.
The General Court annulled the Commission’s 2015 decision finding illegal aid in the Netherlands’ Starbucks tax ruling, holding the Commission had not demonstrated the existence of an advantage under state aid rules.
On appeal, the Court of Justice set aside the General Court’s 2019 ruling in Micula, holding (among other points) that the Commission could treat the measure as state aid subject to EU control, and referred the case back to the General Court.
The Court of Justice annulled the Commission’s Fiat state aid decision, tightening how selectivity and the reference system must be established in tax-ruling state aid cases (Joined Cases C-885/19 P and C-898/19 P).
State aid decisions and enforcement by the Commission and CJEU (2005–2023)
