There’s a feeling I get when I look to the West: aiuti di Stato e allargamento dell’Unione europea ai Balcani occidentali

There’s a feeling I get when I look to the West: State aids and the enlargement of the European Union towards the Western Balkans

Abstract

On 6 February
2018, the European Commission released its new expansion plan, which covers six Western  Balkan countries – Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. According to the Commission, all these countries could achieve accession as members of the European Union in the next decade. However, in order to join the European Union, they need to comply with its acquis, a part of which concerns State aids. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the relevant provisions that can be found in the Stabilisation and Association Agreements concluded with these countries as well as in their national legislation, in order to assess whether the applicants are compliant with the EU’s model.

Keywords: State aids; Western Balkans; Article 107 of the TFEU; Enlargement; Stabilisation and Association Agreements.