State aid to banks (IVOR nr. 109) 2018/6.9.1:6.9.1 The structure of the following seven chapters

State aid to banks (IVOR nr. 109) 2018/6.9.1

6.9.1 The structure of the following seven chapters

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The present chapter has set out how the Commission decisions will be analysed in this PhD-study; the actual analysis of the Commission decisions will take place in the following seven chapters.

To a large extent, the way how the following seven chapters are structured is guided by the way how the Commission decisions are structured – or more precisely: by the way how the assessment-part of the decisions is structured. As was explained in section 3.5,1 the Commission’s assessment of State aid measures consists of five steps. These five steps are presented in the following table. The first column indicates how I have labelled the steps; the second column indicates what the steps in the assessment entail; the third column indicates in which chapter of this PhD-study the five steps are discussed. As the table indicates, each of the following seven chapters will discuss the characteristics that are relevant to a particular step of the Commission’s assessment. For instance, the characteristics that are relevant to the assessment that the State aid measure is appropriate, necessary and proportionate (i.e. the first stage of the compatibility-assessment) are discussed in chapter 8.

Steps in the Commission’s assessment of bank State aid measures

Preliminary steps

Assessment of whether a measure constitutes State aid within the meaning of rticle 107(1) TFEU.

- when the measure constitutes State aid:

Assessment of whether the compatibility of the State aid measure should be assessed on the basis of Article 107(3)(b) TFEU.

Chapter 7

 

Chapter 7

First stage of the compatibility- assessment

- when Article 107(3)(b) TFEU forms the basis of the compatibility-assessment,

- in case of a guarantee or recapitalisation:

Assessment of whether the State aid measure meets the criteria of appropriateness, necessity and proportionality.

- when Article 107(3)(b) TFEU forms the basis of the compatibility-assessment,

- in case of an asset relief measure:

Assessment of whether the asset relief measure complies with the criteria of the Impaired Assets Communication.

 

 

Chapter 8

 

 

Chapter 9

Intermediate step

- when the State aid is appropriate, necessary and proportionate/complies with the IAC-criteria:

Assessment of whether a restructuring plan is required for the beneficiary bank.

 

Chapter 10

Second stage of the compatibility- assessment

- when a restructuring plan is required:

Assessment of whether the restructuring plan meets the three restructuring objectives:

• restoring long-term viability

• burden-sharing

• minimising competition distortions

 

 

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

The term “preliminary steps” already indicates the relative importance that these steps have in this PhD-study. Although every step in the Commission’s assessment will be discussed, this PhD-study focusses on the compatibility-assessment. Why this special focus on the compatibility-assessment? It should be recalled that this PhD-study is about State aid to banks. What makes the assessment of bank State aid special is that the Commission created a specific assessment framework (i.e. the Crisis Framework), which addresses the compatibility of bank State aid. This justifies a special focus on the compatibility-assessment. As a consequence, every step in the assessment that precedes the compatibility- assessment, is regarded (in this PhD-study) as a preliminary step.

While the main focus of this PhD-study is on the compatibility-assessment, this PhD-study focusses in particular on the second stage of the compatibility- assessment. This is due to the following: in my view, the Commission attaches the most importance to the second stage of the compatibility-assessment.2 For this reason, the chapters 11, 12 and 13 – which discuss the characteristics that are relevant to this second stage of the compatibility-assessment – can be considered as the main chapters of this PhD-study.

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