During the financial crisis, companies and lenders found themselves in distressed situations. Competition authorities … transactions as well as assessment of emergency aid granted by states. This article considers competition policy in periods of …

the effectiveness of all subsidies in the Member States. This goes far beyond the initial intention of the EU competition … distortions of competition. The possibility of a bailout test in merger policy is discussed …

Union (EU) competition law as exceptional. A Temporary Framework for State Aid was issued for the ‘current exceptional … Article 101. Before this framework, the Commission had joined an European Competition Network (ECN) statement of non … normal. These two temporary frameworks were soft law, based on the Commission’s discretion to interpret and apply competition …

competition policy. At first sight one may think that state aid control by the EC Commission could become an easy 'victim' of the …

the economy. In an economic crisis, the tension between the possibility to counteract and fair competition comes … particularly to the fore. The European Commission gave priority to the former. However, the distortion of competition that this … the interests of the financially weaker member States and to preserve fair competition and cohesion in the EU …