The economic analysis of state aid: Some open questions

The last few years have seen both a significant shift in EU state aid policy towards a more sophisticated economic approach and a great enrichment of the economic literature on state aid. This paper examines the control of state aid in the EU in the light of the new literature. It begins with a discussion of the objectives of state aid control, taking account of the principle of subsidiarity. We discuss whether state aid control should concentrate on limiting the effects of aid on trade and competition (i.e. harm to rivals) or whether the purpose is broader and includes also considerations such as avoiding government failures and encouraging Member States to use state aid more sparingly and target it more efficiently. This leads to a brief analysis of how the appropriate welfare standard to be applied in state aid control would vary according to the weight given to different objectives. The paper then considers the objectives pursued by governments in granting aid with particular emphasis on the concept of market failure. The nature and magnitude of the market failure addressed by a state aid, together with the design of the aid, will strongly influence the extent of any anti-competitive effects. The last two parts (4 and 5) of the paper are devoted to specific problems of assessing anti-competitive effects using the types of information normally available to the aid-granting authorities and the European Commission. Part 4 discusses the problem of assessing the effects on competition of aid schemes and broad classes of aid, when the beneficiaries and even the affected markets are not known. Because Member States grant a vast number of individual aids every year, the Commission has to apply simple criteria to screen out those aids that are unlikely to have significant anti-competitive effects. We survey a range of indicators that can be used for this purpose and conclude that they all have drawbacks. Part 5 deals with the problems of assessing individual awards of aid which have failed the screening test, discussing how the main characteristics of firms (e.g. market share, vertical integration) and markets (such as product differentiation and market growth) may influence a state aid's impact on competition. Keywords: European Union, state aid, subsidies, competition policy.European Union, state aid, subsidies, competition policy, Buelens, Garnier, Meiklejohn, Johnson

Assessing the solid protocol in relation to security and privacy obligations

The Solid specification aims to empower data subjects by giving them direct access control over their data across multiple applications. As governments are manifesting their interest in this framework for citizen empowerment and e-government services, security and privacy represent pivotal issues to be addressed. By analysing the relevant legislation, with an emphasis on GDPR and officially approved documents such as codes of conduct and relevant security ISO standards, we formulate the primary security and privacy requirements for such a framework. The legislation places some obligations on pod providers, much like cloud services. However, what is more interesting is that Solid has the potential to support GDPR compliance of Solid apps and data users that connect, via the protocol, to Solid pods containing personal data. A Solid-based healthcare use case is illustrated where identifying such controllers responsible for apps and data users is essential for the system to be deployed. Furthermore, we survey the current Solid protocol specifications regarding how they cover the highlighted requirements, and draw attention to potential gaps between the specifications and requirements. We also point out the contribution of recent academic work presenting novel approaches to increase the security and privacy degree provided by the Solid project. This paper has a twofold contribution to improve user awareness of how Solid can help protect their data and to present possible future research lines on Solid security and privacy enhancements

Trade Adjustments following the Removal of Textile and Clothing Quotas. CEPS Working Documents No. 222, 1 May 2005

With the end of the WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing and the removal of all textile and clothing quotas on 1 January 2005, the characteristics of global production patterns and trade flows will change substantially. Countries previously constrained by quotas will gain under the new situation. This paper analyses the restrictiveness of the quotas that were applied by the EU in 2004 and argues that large and instantaneous changes in terms of prices and import shares are a natural and expected adjustment that is proportionate in size to the quotas’ level of restriction. It also finds that import increases in volumes are much higher than in value, as quota abolition is accompanied by falling prices. In that light the paper discusses the rationale for safeguard measures and concludes that they are not justified. Indeed, sharp increases in imports are simply a natural adaptation to the new situation – to a large extent the shock of the quota removal will be absorbed by other countries. Nevertheless, the 10-year transition period should have been used more effectively by both producers and governments to prepare for the aftermath of the abolition of the quota system

Die Auswirkungen der ATC-Liberalisierung auf die deutsche Textilwirtschaft. = The impact of the ATC liberalization on the German textile industry. CEPS Special Reports, August 2002

No abstract

The dynamics of transnational railway governance in Europe during the long nineteenth century

Despite fierce international rivalries and commercial competition among companies, regions, and states in Europe, a transnational community of managers and engineers was able to promote interoperability of railways across national frontiers in the long nineteenth century. If at first they collaborated informally and ad hoc, around 1850 their activities became institutionalized. The main aim of this article is to explore the origins, working method, and spatial reach of their newly established institutions, of which the Verein Deutscher Eisenbahn-Verwaltungen (Association of German Railway Companies) is the most important. We argue that through its method of technification (or de-politicization), the Verein became a key transnational player in promoting collaboration and interoperability across national frontiers. Together with other railway organizations, including their engineers, the Verein contributed to creating a European transnational space – one that was not fully controlled by national governments and that paved the way for new forms of infrastructural Europeanism