The role of national courts in the enforcement of European Union State aid law is crucial

A seminar on state aid, enforcement and cooperation tools was held in Cyprus on 25-26 May 2025. Participants discussed various aspects of public aid that favour certain entrepreneurs or the production of certain goods.

Judge of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic Katarína Cangárová attended the SUNAJUST training programme seminar, during which she had the opportunity to discuss with the representative of the European Commission Natalia Lazarova, professors from the Brussels Center for Competition Policy and judges of administrative and civil courts from EU Member States.

The seminar focused on EU state aid law, e.g. the definitional criteria for state aid, the prohibition of state aid and exceptions to this prohibition, procedural rules, the General Block Exemption Regulation and the competences and roles of national courts in the application of state aid law, as well as examples of proceedings before national courts. Participants also dealt with the handling of case studies, presented their results and addressed various legal issues in the field of State aid that may arise before national courts.

The European Commission must be notified of Member States’ intentions to grant State aid sufficiently in advance to allow it to authorise or prohibit the aid. This is the so-called general notification obligation, to which there are certain exceptions. At the same time, Member States are obliged to ensure that State aid does not distort competition.

“EU state aid law can have various legal implications in proceedings before the administrative and civil courts of the Member States. If aid is granted without the approval of the European Commission, national courts are obliged to grant protection to the injured parties, in particular the competitors of the aid recipient. I find the meeting between the EU representative, experts and judges of administrative and civil courts dealing with such aid very useful,” explained Judge Katarína Cangárová.