Primjena Pravila o državnim potporama Europske zajednice u segmentu morskih luka
Application of community rules on state aids in the ports sector

Summary/Abstract: The state aid rules in the EC Treaty apply to seaports as they do to all other sectors of the economy. Under Article 88 (3) of the EC Treaty Member states are obliged to notify state aids in the ports sector. Aids which have not been notified are automatically unlawful. But state aid policy in the ports sector has also its political dimension. The reason for that lies in the fact that the majority of ports in the EU are state-owned and ports are seen as a public service. Because of that state intervention in ports is present in a greater amount than elsewhere in the economy. Although there had been some studies of state aids in the port sector carried out on Community level in 1970s and 1980s, no specific measures had ensued. In the Green Paper on Seaports and Maritime Infrastructure the Commission proposed ''a user pays'' principle in the field of state aids in the ports sector analogous to ''polluter pays'' principle in environmental law. According to user pays principle users have to bear the real costs of the seaport infrastructures which they are using. This principle is abandoned in Commission Communication from 2001 (Ports Package) and selectivity criterion is set out as the only benchmark for deciding whether a concrete investment measure in the ports sector constitutes an aid or not. An important document on state aid policy in seaports sector is Vademecum on community rules on state aid and the financing of the construction of a seaport infrastructures which is being analyzed in this paper as well as the recent Commission decision about state aid for construction of a new port in Jade WeserPortcase which is foundation for our predictions about a future common European state aid policy in seaports sector.

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