EIPA Luxembourg - Contract Activities

Since 2012, EIPA’s European Centre for Judges and Lawyers (ECJL) in Luxembourg has held annual conferences on the theme ‘European Union Civil Service Law’. These events have been a great success and attracted the enthusiasm of many participants, including judges from the European Union Civil Service Tribunal (now defunct) and General Court, legal representatives of the European institutions, university professors and lawyers specialised in this field. In light of this, EIPA wishes to repeat the experience by organising the 10th Annual Conference. This will be an occasion to explore some of the recent developments in both substantive and procedural law. The aim of the conference is twofold: first, to inform participants about recent developments in the case law of the General Court and to look in more detail at specific issues regarding civil service litigation in the EU, including those which are currently on the agenda; and secondly, to provide scope for a debate and a critical assessment of this case law among the key actors concerned, namely judges, lawyers and staff of the institutions.

State aid control is the cornerstone of the proper functioning of the internal market. State aid cases primarily concern the recipient states. Secondly, they concern companies that gain a selective advantage affecting or likely to affect trade between Member States and market competition. The first difficult aspect lies with determining whether or not an action taken or programme constitutes aid and then assessing whether the given aid is to be considered compatible with the common market. Despite the general prohibition of State aid, the legislation specifies many exemptions for aid that enhances the efficiency of the single market and boosts the European economy. The Commission’s implementation of the State aid policy has progressively resulted in a strengthening of the Commission’s control over the most complex forms of aid and an increased liability of the Member States in granting forms of aid.   This course will cover the following crucial topics, as the notion of State aid; State aid procedures: notified aid, unlawful aid (recovery), misuse of aid and existing aid; the compatibility of State aid; the Block Exemption Regulations and the horizontal and sectoral aid rules.   Accordingly, it will focus on the concept of State aid; the crucial judgments of the CJUE on State aid; the European Commission’s enforcement priorities; the revision of State aid instruments; the enforcement of State aid rules by national courts.

This annual conference reviews and comments on a selected number of judicial decisions issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union during the past 12 months. These judicial decisions are regarded as significant for: * They offer a first-time interpretation on certain EU legal instruments; * They give a new meaning to existing legal rules; * Or they adapt or re-examine past jurisprudence. The program of this new edition will feature a number of key decisions in the field of the Rule of Law,  the EU legal system and procedural law and on the application and interpretation of fundamental EU law principles. It will also present an analysis of major recent judgements on substantive EU law matters such economic and monetary policy, employment and social affairs, taxation and competition. The program will then move on to  discuss  Court’s key rulings in external relations and the area of freedom of security and justice. The conference will conclude with a description of how the Court and its work adapted to the particular contingencies of the COVID-19 pandemic situation.