European “Ghost Airports”: EU Law Failure or Policy Failure? The Need for economic Analysis in State Aid Law

• Authors: Kociubiński Jakub
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Wasteful spending of public funds, leading to the creation of “ghost airports”, is often described as a regulatory failure and a major deficiency in European State aid control. It is pointed out that decisions to build or upgrade an airport are often ill­conceived, poorly implemented, and without economic justification. This raises the question whether European law, namely its State aid control system, contains inherent flaws or whether the European Commission’s decision­making process can be improved by increasing reliance on objective economic reasoning under the existing legal framework. This article provides an analysis of the decision­making problems leading to failed aid efforts; of the role of the economic approach in State aids; and of the standard of economic assessment required in State aid cases. The article concludes with de lege ferenda postulates.

Keywords

EN

air transport; airports; economic analysis; EU law; investment aid; state aid

• Publisher: Instytut Nauk Prawnych PAN / Institute of Legal Studies PAN
• Journal: Polish Yearbook of International Law
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 37
• Pages: 163-183

Dates

published

2018-09-01

Contributors

author

Kociubiński Jakub

• Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics, University of Wrocław

Identifiers

DOI

10.7420/pyil2017g