Rules on State Aid

I have always been amazed at the willingness of Governments to throw our money at private businesses to the benefit of the shareholders. To its credit, the EU has in recent years tried to reduce the amount of money being thus spent, as it creates unfair competition. Know it all though I am, I am never quite able to understand what is allowed and what isn’t. Take this for example.

The airline (Ryanair) is appealing against the Commission’s decision that it unfairly benefited from alleged deals with Belgium’s Wallonia regional government over Charleroi airport.

The money paid to Ryanair, to my mind was very similar to the kind of regional aid that is the EU’s second biggest budget entry. So why the difference in opinion? A cynic might say that the problem with the Ryanair Deal was that they did not put up signs boasting of how the EU is responsible for all the jobs created.