Case ECS-11/14: Serbia / State aid

summary of the case

status: closed in preliminary procedure (Art.91) /
complied in preliminary procedure
registered: upon complaint 18.06.2014

 

 

 

 


The subject matter of this case are four state guarantees granted by the Republic of Serbia for loans from international financial institutions to EPS for the Kolubara B power plant project and the transfer of property and land from the Republic of Serbia to EPS for the same project. The Secretariat preliminarily concluded that these measures constitute State aid and that the Republic of Serbia infringed the Treaty in two ways. On the one hand, the Commission for State Aid Control failed to assess whether four of the measures provided by the Republic of Serbia were compatible with the Energy Community internal market. On the other hand, the single compatibility assessment undertaken by the Commission for State Aid Control was not in line with the State aid acquis. In both cases, the Republic of Serbia failed to fulfil its obligation to effectively enforce the Energy Community State aid acquis.

Article 18(1)(c) of the Treaty contains a prohibition of State aid which according to Article 19 of the Treaty also applies to public undertakings and undertakings, to which special or exclusive rights have been granted. These provisions, together with Article 6 of the Treaty, require the Contracting Parties to introduce a corresponding prohibition of State aid into their national legal systems and ensure its enforcement.