Kokkoris, Ioannis --- "To Divest or Not to Divest: That is the Question..." [2011] ELECD 500; in LaBrosse, Raymond John; Olivares-Caminal, Rodrigo; Singh, Dalvinder (eds), "Managing Risk in the Financial System" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Managing Risk in the Financial System

Editor(s): LaBrosse, Raymond John; Olivares-Caminal, Rodrigo; Singh, Dalvinder

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857933812

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: To Divest or Not to Divest: That is the Question...

Author(s): Kokkoris, Ioannis

Number of pages: 21

Extract:

15. To divest or not to divest: that is
the question . . .
Ioannis Kokkoris

In Europe the provision of subsidies and other forms of aid by the State still forms an
accepted part, indeed often a central part, of economic policy, even in those countries
most attached to the model of the free market. Yet the very existence of State Aid poses
obvious problems for the single market for which the European Union is striving. The
EC law of State Aid therefore raises issues of the greatest social, economic and political
importance as well as a great variety of difficult and fascinating legal problems. Seldom
have the rules of Community law on State Aid been invoked more frequently than at
present. Seldom has the definition of a State Aid presented more difficulty.1



15.1. INTRODUCTION

Different types of laws affect the conditions or environment of competi-
tion within and between member states. `Competition law', therefore,
potentially has a very wide scope, encompassing all laws that determine
the conditions of competition.2 If a member state adopts a system of
competition law, that system can be characterized as a national interest in
the sense that the State believes that competition and its regulation serve
values and interests deemed important for domestic and international
reasons. The notion of competition law as a national interest corresponds
with the growth of competition law systems in many liberal, democratic
sovereign states. Competition law has become part of the capitalist ethos
in many democratic societies, and ...