DIRITTO E POLITICA DEI TRASPORTI (ISSN 2612-5056), I/2021, p. 22 – 37
Abstract. The (recent) domestic and European Union case-law on State aids. A look at the domestic aids established by regional laws, in particular the Sardinian airports case. The article analyzes the complex issue of State aid by looking at its founding elements as well as at the control procedure of the European Commission on these aids. At the first, it recalls the definition of “State aid” developed by the Commission and the EU Court of Justice through an analysis system (the so-called “VIST” criterion) based on the four parameters: (i) economic advantage in favor of a company receiving the public measure; (ii) incidence of a similar measure in the European internal trade; (iii) the selectivity or specificity of the aid; (iv) transfer of state resources. After, the analysis focuses on the control procedure of the European Commission and shows that in certain cases it is particularly complex to place certain support measures in this category. In this sense the recent decisions of the Court of the European Union in cases T-607/17, T-716/17, and T-8/18 and the V section of the Council of State, July 15, 2019, n. 4962 are emblematic. These cases, where there are forms of aid of a new institution represented by a regulatory intervention adopted at regional level, offer the opportunity to highlight that the EU legislation cannot be circumvented.