State Aid & EU

The economic, geopolitical and environmental challenges Europe faces are getting increasingly intricate. As a result, the legal landscape in the European Union (EU) is changing rapidly.

As a result, the legal landscape in the EU is changing rapidly. the EU places ever more emphasis on subsidies and cooperation in the field of sustainability initiatives to create a more supportive environment to meet Europe's ambitious climate and digital targets.The EU adopts fair and predictable instruments to ensure that the Member States’ policies regarding – for example – subsidies, cooperation between undertakings and the functioning of the digital economy foster the contestability of markets and do not distort competition in the Single Market. In this context, the EU rules on State aid, competition and public procurement play an important role. In addition, the EU is adopting new legislation in adjacent areas. For instance, under the new Foreign Subsidies Regulation, the European Commission can exclude non-EU companies from engaging in M&A deals or public procurements.

PwC has extensive interdisciplinary expertise on the EU state aid, competition and public procurement rules and has vast experience in advising both policy makers as businesses on these topics.

Webcast State Aid

On 12 January 2021, Allard Knook and Wouter Amersfoort held a PwC webcast on ‘State aid and the increasing need for cooperation between government and industry’. During the webcast, Allard Knook discussed the latest state of affairs regarding European and Dutch state aid developments since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. Allard Knook spoke, among other things, about the conditions under which aid can be obtained and how over the course of months these conditions have been extended and, in some cases, relaxed. Wouter Amersfoort spoke about the hybrid government. This is the trend marked by a coming together of public and private entities that work together to shape social change. It also addressed whether, and to what extent, the new relationship between government and business affects the way businesses are run. You can find the link to the webcast to the left. The slides are also available for download.

How can we help you?

PwC can help you navigate through the legal framework and intricacies of these rules. With our experts, you are ensured of the latest legal insights. With our worldwide network, we can offer our services at a local level. These include the following:

The assessment of the legality of government financing (including in the fields of state aid, subsidy law, procurement law and European Union law);
The realisation of subsidy programmes and other forms of government financing, such as funds;
The design of joint ventures between government and business, triple helix (government, the business sector and universities) or hybrid governments;
Exploring possibilities to make use of subsidy programmes or other forms of state aid on a national or European level.

With our deep-rooted knowledge of different sectors, we can assist governmental institutions by providing the proper tools to succeed within a short time span. We ensure both efficiency as well as legality, irrespective of whether the applicable tool entails government loans or guarantees, specific compensation frameworks or other financial measures.