6.1 Introduction

While the previous four chapters provided some indispensable backgrounds to the topic of this PhD-study, the present chapter is essentially a continuation of chapter 1. Indeed, chapter 1 set out the main aim of this PhD-study: to provide a framework which can be used to establish whether a bank State aid decision complies with the principle of equal treatment. A fundamental question in that regard is how the principle of equal treatment can be applied to bank State aid cases. The current chapter focusses on this fundamental question.

To that end, section 6.2 provides a brief overview of the principle of equal treatment. Section 6.3 outlines that there are differences in the restructuring plans. From that perspective, banks are treated differently. Does this different treatment constitute a violation of the principle of equal treatment? In my view, there are three possible approaches to finding out whether the different treatment constitutes an unequal treatment. However, two of these approaches are problematic, as is explained in sections 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6. The core of the present chapter can be found in section 6.7 which introduces the ‘relevant characteristics approach’ – this is the approach that I will take in this PhD-study to find out whether the bank State aid decisions are in line with the principle of equal treatment. Section 6.8 introduces a concept that plays a central role in the ‘relevant characteristics approach’: the relevant context. Building upon the ‘relevant characteristics approach’, section 6.9 addresses some further issues and thereby provides the basic outline of the remainder of this PhD-study.