Between the 27th and the 28th of May 2010, Mr. D. Gatidis, member of the State Aid Unit, attended a seminar concerning state aid in the transport sector organised by EIPA (European Institute of Public Administration) in Maastricht (The Netherlands). During the first day of the seminar, the lecturers presented the general principals of the state aid legislation (notion of transport services, notion of aid and state resources, economic activity, advantage, private investor principle, selectivity, effect on trade, distortion of competition). Furthermore, there has been an extended presentation of Commission’s Guidelines concerning land, sea an air transport as well as a parallel analysis of the latest most important Commission’s decisions. The lecturers have also presented the subject of cumulation of different forms of aid eg. state aid for the transport sector in combination with aid granted for environmental protection or regional aid or aid for research – development – innovation (R&D&I). Special emphasis has been given to the application of the de minimis Regulation (1998/2006/EC) given that the latter includes special provisions concerning aid to the transport sector.
During the specialized session of the seminar, the lecturers have presented the basic principles of the Altmark jurisprudence concerning, in particular, the four criteria that the latter sets out concerning public service obligations (PSOs) in the land transport sector. Moreover, there has been a detailed presentation of the Regulation 1370/2007/EC on public passenger transport services by rail and by road. An analysis has been also carried out concerning the basic characteristics of the public service contracts and concessions referring to eligible operators, contract’s duration, tendering procedure (transparency obligations), as well as the compensation for transport services subjected to PSOs (calculation of the compensation, absence of over-compensation). The lectures have outlined the special conditions applied “in house” contracts signed without a prior tendering procedure in addition to the special notion of “internal operator” as it has been set out through the latest General Court’s jurisprudence.
During the seminar’s second day, there has been an extended presentation of the new Commission’s Guidelines on state aid to railway undertakings (aid for infrastructure, aid for purchase and renewal of rolling stock, debt cancellation, restructuring of rail undertakings, coordination aid). Moreover, the lecturers presented the relationship between state aid and infrastructure financing (eg. seaports, airports, gas pipelines, broadband networks). Finally, lecturers originated from the Netherlands, Germany and Poland presented their national experiences concerning state aid regimes for public road transport, sea transport and the replacement of railway rolling stock, respectively.