5.21 Concluding remarks

As set out in section 5.1.2, this chapter had a twofold purpose: to give an overview of the case-law of the CJEU on bank State aid and to discuss how the CJEU has interpreted the principle of equal treatment in bank State aid cases. The main findings of this chapter can be summarised as follows. In the first place, most bank State aid decisions are not challenged before the Court of Justice (see section 5.19). In the second place, the principle of equal treatment is interpreted very narrowly by the Court of Justice (see section 5.20). This PhD-study takes into account both findings. The narrow CJEU-definition of the principle of equal treatment might be considered problematic. However, since only a small fraction of the bank State aid cases are assessed by the CJEU, the fact that the CJEU interprets the principle of equal treatment in such a narrow way, is less problematic. This justifies looking at other – possibly broader – definitions of the principle of equal treatment. This will be done in the next chapter.