www.competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/state-aid_en

Standard Operating Procedure: Leveraging the EU State Aid Portal for Competition Cases

• Platform: European Commission State Aid Portal (competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/state-aid_en)

• Visual Interface Analysis:

  • The ==LINKS ACTION==.pdf file you provided does not contain a screenshot of this specific State Aid Portal landing page. The platform is an informational gateway, designed with standard EU Commission branding to provide access to legal and policy documents.

• Official Portal Description & Rules (from Web Search):

  • Yes, my research provides the following descriptions which serve as the rules and functions of this portal. The standard model below is based on the systematic application of these functions.
  • The portal’s official purpose and components are described as follows:
    • The Legal Framework: The portal provides access to the definitive legislation governing State aid, primarily “Articles 107 to 109 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU),” which form the legal basis for all State aid control.
    • Guidelines: The Commission publishes “Guidelines” that clarify how it will apply the rules in specific sectors or for certain types of aid. A key example is the “Guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy (CEEAG),” which sets out the conditions for aid in this sector to be considered compatible with the single market.
    • The Complaint Procedure: The portal outlines the official procedure for lodging a complaint about unlawful State aid and provides access to the standardized complaint form.
    • The State Aid Scoreboard: This is an annual publication that “provides a comprehensive overview of State aid expenditure in the EU… based on the reports provided by the Member States.”
• Standard Model for Application to Cocoo Cases:

  This SOP outlines the standard process for using the State Aid Portal to build and prosecute any case involving an illegal subsidy, ensuring our arguments are always grounded in the European Commission’s own legal framework.

  • Standard Action based on Rule 1: “The Legal Framework”
    • Model Application: In any case involving a potential illegal subsidy, the first action is to use this portal to access the definitive legal texts, primarily Articles 107-109 TFEU. Our initial case assessment memorandum will always begin with an analysis of how the facts of the case meet the four-part test for State aid derived from Article 107(1).
  • Standard Action based on Rule 2: “Sector-Specific Guidelines”
    • Model Application: For any case in a specific economic sector (e.g., energy, transport, finance), it is Cocoo’s standard procedure to immediately locate and download the relevant State Aid Guidelines from this portal. We will then create a “Compliance Checklist” based on these guidelines. Our primary legal argument will be structured around this checklist, demonstrating point-by-point how the subsidy in question fails to meet the Commission’s own published criteria for compatibility.
  • Standard Action based on Rule 3: “The State Aid Scoreboard”
    • Model Application: As part of our standard initial assessment of any state aid case, we will use the Scoreboard found on this portal to conduct a comparative analysis. We will analyze the target Member State’s aid expenditure in the relevant sector and compare it to the EU average and to its closest peers. This data will be used to argue whether the aid measure is an exceptional and highly distortive outlier.
  • Standard Action based on Rule 4: “The Complaint Procedure”
    • Model Application: It is Cocoo’s standard procedure to use the official, standardized complaint form found on this portal to draft our formal complaint. This ensures procedural correctness from the outset. The fully-drafted complaint form serves as a key piece of leverage in any pre-litigation negotiations or mediation, as it represents a credible and imminent threat of formal regulatory action.

• Integration with Cocoo’s Core Objectives (Mediation & Tendering):

  • Standard Leverage for Mediation:
    • This model ensures that in any mediation, our arguments are not based on opinion but on the Commission’s own published “rulebook.” Our standard negotiating tactic is to directly quote from the relevant Guidelines to demonstrate the illegality of the opponent’s subsidy. This objective, evidence-based approach makes it extremely difficult for the opposing party to defend their position and creates strong pressure to settle.
  • Standard Support for Tendering:
    • Cocoo’s standard methodology for any public tender where subsidies may be involved is to proactively structure our proposal to be fully compliant with the relevant State Aid Guidelines found on this portal. Every tender we submit in such a context will include a dedicated “State Aid Compliance” section. This positions our proposal as a pre-vetted, legally robust, and safe solution for the government authority, giving us a significant competitive advantage.

This analysis is complete.