3.1 Introduction

While the previous chapter focussed on State aid in general, this chapter specifically focusses on State aid to banks. Why this special focus on banks? In essence, the special focus on banks is due to two specific features of the banking sector: banks are essential to the economy and banks are special. These two specific features of the banking sector explain why State aid to banks might be justified. These two features will be explored in section 3.2, while section 3.3 and 3.4 discuss how the two specific features of the banking sector are taken into account by the Member States respectively the Commission. In other words: sections 3.3 and 3.4 set out how the Member States and the Commission responded to the financial crisis.

Roughly speaking: the topic of this PhD-study is State aid to banks. More specifically, the topic of this PhD-study is the Commission’s assessment of State aid to banks. The last three sections of the present chapter introduce some key features of this assessment.1 Firstly, section 3.5 provides an overview of the various steps in the Commission’s assessment of bank State aid measures.2 Secondly, the Commission’s assessment of bank State aid measures is laid down in its decisions. In order to analyse the Commission decisions, it is essential to understand how the decisions are built up and what types of decisions there are. To that end, section 3.6 provides a basic overview of the decisions. Finally, since the restructuring measures play a key role in the Commission’s assessment of bank State aid measures, section 3.7 provides a basic overview of these structural and behavioural measures.