Fiona Wishlade has contributed an article entitled "To What Effect? The Overhaul of the Regional Aid Guidelines - The Demise of Competition Effects and Rise of Incentive Effect?" to the latest issue of the European State Aid Law Quarterly.
The article sets the recent reform of the Regional Aid Guidelines (RAG) in a longer term context, focusing in particular on the treatment of aid to large enterprises, the use of which is to be severely constrained in some regions. Among other things, the article argues that the latest iteration of the RAG reflects a shift in the theories of competitive harm prioritised by the Commission, but that the very pursuit of incentive effect may actually diminish the prospect of achieving it.
The full article can be accessed via the journal's website.