Whether or not state compensation for the performance of public service obligations constitutes aid is a
question to which consistent answers have not been forthcoming.
In its Altmark Trans judgment the Court made an attempt to definitely settle this issue when it held that
state compensation for the undertaking of public service obligations does not confer an advantage on
undertakings if the four criteria set out in that judgment are fulfilled. However, this conditional answer
provided by the Court to this question opened a different can of worms. The Altmark criteria overlap with
those found in Article 86(2) EC begging the question; did Altmark incorporate the Article 86(2) EC
derogation into the Article 87(1) EC concept of advantage? The Commission’s position is clearly set out in
its Monti package; it considers that the exception may be applied after the Altmark criteria. By permitting
the application of the same legal criteria twice, the Commission runs the risk of applying these criteria in an
inconsistent manner. This article sets out to examine the ramifications the Altmark judgment has had on the
legal certainty of the Community’s state aid regime. In this regard, particular emphasis will be put on the
Commission’s recent ’’Monti package’’ to examine whether it has cleared up any remaining confusion post-
Altmark.This article has been shortlisted for the 2nd World Competition Young Writer’s Award.
World Competition