Summary:
State aids constitute a mean, used by the EU Member-States, in order to support several sectors of their economies. However, their unreasonable use is likely to lead to distortion of competition and to have adverse effects on the internal trade of the European Union. For this reason, the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU has delineated with general provisions the institutional framework for state aid grant. In parallel, the European Commission and the European Court of Justice have outlined the conditions that compose the meaning of state aid.
This master thesis examines the issue of state aids and thoroughly deals with the case of state aids in the maritime transport sector within the EU. The maritime transport sector, in particular, is of vital importance not only for the economy of the European Union, but also for the economies of its Member-States. This sector, however, has been facing for several years intense competition from vessels registered in third countries, which, by the measures they take, aim naturally at their own benefit, at the rapid development of their shipping sector and at the expansion of their economic structures.
The European Commission has issued a set of Guidelines, which regulate the granting of state aids in the maritime transport sector. The aim of these Guidelines is the convergence of the measures adopted by Member-States for the protection of their fleet, so as a European framework for state aids in the maritime transport sector to be established and thus growth and competitiveness in the shipping sector to be promoted throughout the entire Union.
The Guidelines, which are currently in effect and came into force in 2004, are to be revised. In 2014 though their indefinite extension was decided.
The reasons, for which state aid grants, even nowadays, are thought to be justified and sometimes mandatory in the maritime transport sector, vary and have been demonstrated by the institutional system of the European Union.
Finally, it must be stated that the maritime transport sector is one of the most important economic sectors of the European Union and the granted aids are considered mostly positive, having contributed mainly to the development of the shipping sector within the Union in general and of the EU fleet in particular.
Keywords:
State aids, maritime transport sector, shipping sector, European Union, EU competition law.
