Fiona Wishlade was a speaker at policymaker conference organised by the CGET at the Ecole Militaire in Paris.
Her presentation explores how Member States have responded to the landmark "Leipzig-Halle" case, which was seen by many as involving a shift in the relationship between the State aid rules and infrastructure investment (others saw it as a logical extension of "Aéroports de Paris"). Her presentation focused mainly on the implications for Cohesion policy co-financed investments, looking at the implications of the ex ante conditionalities on State aid and the mechanisms put in place by Managing Authorities to ensure State aid compliance. She concludes that the tightening of the rules, audit and the cost of non-compliance tends to make Managing Authorities risk averse, with the result that problematic cases are more likely to be financed through domestic sources only. Fiona's presentation is available here.