State Aid Evolution Overview In European Union Context During The Period 2007-2012

According to the European Union point of view, the fundamental principle of state aid is to ensure that inside the single market, competition is not distorted. In this context, by exception state aid can be justified when they contribute to achieving EU's social and economic goals. This may take place when market forces obstruct the achieving of the proposed objectives or permit their achieving on unacceptable long terms and costs. This article is structured in four parts, focusing on European Union's vision regarding state aid measures. The first part of the article refers to the general context of state aid in EU. The second part of the article tries to define this concept according to European Commission point of view and also studies the state aid information provided by the EU, through its benchmarking instrument regarding state aid expenditure called State Aid Scoreboard. The third part of the article mainly presents the EU state aid evolution during the period 2007 - 2012 and establishes a methodological point of view in order to classify and divide state aid in two main categories: non-crisis state aid and crisis state aid, with the purpose of avoiding the distortion trends regarding state aid expenditure granted for the financial sector. This part of the article also presents different types of state aid at EU27 level and granted by the selected member states (Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Germany) between 2007 and 2012 and also analysis horizontal aid, sectorial aid and state aid during the economic crisis 2008 - 2012, referring to recapitalization and asset relief measures and guarantees and liquidity measures. The last part of the article presents the conclusions and also states certain recommendations regarding EU state aid practices, based on the results obtained.