The premise of the effect on trade among EU member states in projects concerning culture and heritage conservation within the framework of the implementation of the projects from EU funds – recommendations for judicial decisions

Author(s):  
Jarosław ODACHOWSKI

Aim: Public aid can be involved even in such peculiar public activity sector as culture and heritage conservation. Hence, the EU projects implemented in this area may be subject to legal restrictions on state aid. In this respect, particular legal doubts concerning state aid arise in the context of “impact on trade” premise. This situation is a consequence of both lack of clear definition thereof and the peculiar nature of culture projects. The present paper is aimed at identifying particular issues that ought to be taken into account when determining the possible impact on trade (recommendations for judicature). These issues aren’t actually defined in law, but only in few judgments and literature. Hence, there is a necessity to make further researches.Design / Research methods: Analysis of legal provisions, judgments and literature.Conclusions / findings: 1) It is practically impossible for relevant legal acts to encompass all possible instances of public aid in culture projects. Undoubtedly, judicature (both, of the ECJ and Polish administrative courts) attempts to fill in this peculiar gap by examining and resolving individual cases. 2) Nonetheless, the judicature is not able to account for all possible situations that can be encountered when implementing projects co-financed by the EU, either3) due to the specific nature of this project category, all the above-mentioned aspects and possible interrelations among them need to be considered in great detail. Therefore, each and every case has to be examined separately and individually 4) each of the elements should be examined in detail at every stage of determining whether public aid is granted in a given case (here: from the perspective of possible impact on trade) – both by beneficiaries of the EU funds as well as by institutions involved in management and control system and by administrative courts 5) in individual situations, the sequence of occurrence and intensity of individual elements may differ, which means that each and every case needs to be examined and resolved separately as regards the possible impact on trade and, consequently, the presence of public aid. Originality / value of the article: Contemplated problems are a subject of few judgments and literature. Value of this article is a scientific deepening of all discussed issues. This one is addressed to beneficiaries of the EU funds as well as to institutions involved in management and control system and administrative courts. Implications of the research: This article will enable beneficiaries and mentioned institutions and courts to interpret occurrence of public aid in above-mentioned projects in the appropriate way.

Temida ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-68
Author(s):  
Zorica Mrsevic

The year 2008 by all means will be remembered by several events, which contributed to significant progress in the domain of legal recognition of various aspects of same sex communities. There were also several initiatives contributing to making the political will necessary for legal changes. The most visible one probably was the May recognition of same sex marriage by the Supreme Court of California, which was valid only 5 months before it was cancelled by the referendum held in November 2008. Since this American state has 38 million inhabitants, more than the whole Balkan region, the event was visible by the whole world. The paper provides further analysis of mostly European events, e.g. decisions of European courts in Strasbourg and Luxembourg, political interventions by the EU Parliament Intercrop, releases of the ILGA-Europe, gay pride marches, other public activities, e.g. exhibition in the EU Parliament regarding the International Day of Human Rights, adoption of various documents relevant for the EU member states and permanent changes in internal legal provisions of the member states. The UN Declaration against discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation and gender identity concluded the year. The paper also comprises analysis of a few typical cases of implementation of family relations among same sex partners.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-96
Author(s):  
Paulina Kubera

Abstract The operation of a toll road typically involves an economic activity for which State aid rules apply. However, if the construction and operation of the road infrastructure is bundled and they are tendered out together, they usually fall outside the State aid regime. The reason for it lies in the fact that the use of competitive procurement procedures aim to increase the efficiency of public expenditure and to ensure a level playing field for private operators to compete for public contracts. Nevertheless, based on the European Commission’s decisional practice, it transpires that an economic advantage for a concession holder cannot be ruled out automatically, in particular when there are amendments made to the original agreement. On the example of the Autostrada Wielkopolska S.A. case, critical State aid issues are discussed, among others, the application of State aid rules to public financing of infrastructure, the amendments made to a concession contract in the light of the risk assignment problem, as well as the existence of State aid in the form of overcompensation for a concession holder. The considerations are carried out on the canvas of a concrete case; however, they are enriched by the analysis of relevant legal provisions as well as conclusions from the EU courts and the European Commission decisions made in similar cases.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 929-956
Author(s):  
Mateusz Wąsik

The purpose of the paper is to present the tax consequences resulting from the lack of recognition of registered partnerships and same-sex marriages in certain EU member states, taking the example of Poland. These aspects are usually perceived as discrimination of citizens based on their sexual orientation. The author of this paper has focused on various aspects of possible discrimination, mainly concerning discrimination on the grounds of personal taxation, including inheritance and gift taxes. For these purposes, the author analysed the domestic tax rules differentiating couples living in a marriage and couples without that possibility. These legal provisions have been analysed together with the most recent domestic jurisprudence. Furthermore, the paper presents comparative analyses of domestic rules with EU law. Due to the lack of case-law oriented towards fiscal discrimination due to sexual orientation, the relevant CJEU (the Court of Justice of the European Union, hereinafter: the CJEU) and ECHR (the European Court of Human Rights, hereinafter: the ECHR) case-law have been recalled to reveal possible violations of fundamental freedoms and tax discrimination. The author makes a connection between the lack of proper regulations implemented in the domestic law with the unjustified differentiation of cross-border families on tax grounds. In the long run, only the harmonisation of personal taxation at the EU level can lead to a resolution to this situation. Alternatively, as an interim solution, the relevant ECHR judgment may be of assistance.


2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Mungianu

Abstract Operational cooperation at the external borders of the EU is part of the EU process of supranationalisation since 2006, when the Justice and Home Affairs Council Conclusions identified operational cooperation as a component of a common policy on external border control. Operational cooperation is supported by the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex). In this article I will focus on the extent to which the establishment of Frontex marks the shift of sovereignty from Member States to EU institutions in EU external border control. The analysis of two aspects of operational cooperation through Frontex – joint operations and European Border Guard Teams – shows the EU’s achievement in implementing a common policy on external border control. Nevertheless, EU Member States’ ‘sovereignty clauses’ for the surveillance and control of their external borders prevent the EU from fully exercising its power.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Piotr Podsiadło

The aim of this article is to present the conditions of admissibility of state aidin the European Union, with particular emphasis on horizontal aid for environmentalprotection. State aid measures can correct market failures and therebycontribute towards achieving common objectives. It should be targeted towardssituations where aid can bring a material improvement that the market cannotdeliver alone. The EU Member States intending to grant environmental or energyaid have to define precisely the objective pursued and explain what is the expectedcontribution of the measure towards this objective.


Author(s):  
Piotr Podsiadło

The paper discusses guidelines for implementation of art. 107-109 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, from the point of view of state aid for training. Training usually generates positive externalities for society as a whole, since it increases the pool of skilled workers from which other firms may draw, improves the competitiveness of the EU industry and plays an important role in the EU employment strategy. Statistical analysis was carried out on state aid granted by the EU Member States in the period 2001-2014 - from the perspective of its impact on competitiveness of these countries. This should lead to verification of thesis that the amount of state aid granted by the EU Member States for training, should positively correlate with the size of the GDP per capita of these countries


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
Roman Kisiel ◽  
Małgorzata Kamińska ◽  
Wiesława Lizińska

Evaluation of changes in the value and structure of public aid in Poland and EU during the years 2007-2012 was the objective of the paper. The data from reports by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection as well as data from the State Aid Scoreboard published by the European Commission based on the information provided by the Member States concerning that aid was used. In Poland, evident increasing trends of the horizontal aid value can be observed. In 2012, as compared to 2007, it increased by 0.5 billion euro to the level of 1.64 billion euro. Its share in the total value of support oscillates within 55-60% range. In the European Union that share is generally at the level of 70-74%. In Poland, the sectoral aid is limited gradually although its magnitude still differs from the Union standards. In 2012, the share of that aid was relatively small at ca. 14% while in the EU it was 12.9%. The regional aid is at the similar level both in Poland and in the EU oscillating around 20%. However, in 2012, the share of regional aid in Poland increased to the level of 26% and it was higher by 8 pp than the share of that aid in the EU. Significant differences are characteristic for the share of the aid in the GDP. During the period covered by the study the largest differences occurred in 2010 when the share of support in Poland was 1.7% of the GDP and in the EU 0.6% of the GDP. In 2012, a half of the public aid in Poland was allocated to large enterprises. 


2020 ◽  
pp. 147737082098035
Author(s):  
Gaëtan Cliquennois ◽  
Sonja Snacken ◽  
Dirk Van Zyl Smit

The power to punish is traditionally seen as an essential prerogative of the national state. Over the last three decades, judicial and standard-setting bodies of the Council of Europe (CoE) have sought increasingly, at a regional level, to monitor and control the power of European states to punish. In parallel, the European Union (EU) has become an increasingly important penal actor, fostering a common approach to transnational forms of criminality, as well as seeking judicial cooperation between EU member states in order to deal with a wider range of crimes. Little attention has been paid, however, to the interactions, coherence or discrepancies between the CoE’s and the EU’s bodies and policies. Therefore, we analyse the inter-relationship of the CoE and EU penal and prison policies. We focus on the instruments that can be used to limit European states’ powers to punish, but also, particularly in the case of the EU, on countervailing forces resulting from policies conducted in the field of terrorism and from countries hit by populism. Finally, we develop the concept of ‘two Europes’, which encapsulates not only the discrepancies between the approaches adopted by the CoE and the EU towards human rights moderation of European prison and penal policies but also wider penal policy differences between a modern, liberal democratic, humanistic Europe and a nationalistic Europe conducting harsh penal policies, increasing its margin of appreciation and using its sovereignty in order to avoid implementing such blurred policies.


2018 ◽  
pp. 101-114
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Serlikowska

The purpose of these deliberations is an attempt to answer the question of whether the legal instruments concerning the financing of statutory food controls ensure proper functioning of this form of supervision. In particular, the functioning of the system of fees in various EU Member States has been analysed. It has been found out that despite the fact that the EU legislator has regulated the system of financing official controls of foodstuffs, most national regulations do not provide sufficiently for the proper functioning of the control system, and do not ensure that all costs incurred are recovered. Moreover, the unclear criteria according to which the financing system operates reduces confidence in public administration bodies.


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