State Aid Trends in Poland and Finland – Similarities and Differences

Abstract

State aid is one of the financial instruments available to EU member states for intervention in domestic markets. On the one hand its use is prohibited by Article 107(1) TFEU, but on the other hand there are many exemptions,including regional and horizontal state aid. Given the centralised system for State aid in the EU, one could expect that the volume and structure in terms of forms and purposes of public aid granted should be similar from one member state to the next. Considering the diversity among what are now 27 member states, both from the perspective of experience in managing the economy and the directions of its development, the objective of this article is to capture and evaluate the similarities and differences in the approach taken to State aid as an instrument of intervention in two relatively different countries – Poland and Finland. To this end the comparative analysis will not only cover Poland and Finland themselves but also their respective groups of countries – the Visegrád Group and Scandinavian members of the EU. The above analysis permits the conclusion that the structure of public aid relative to the main purposes of granting differs significantly between Poland and Finland, in favour of Finland, from the perspective of the achievement of the EU objectives associated with the successive economic strategies.