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Alessandro Cogoni

Alessandro Cogoni is an associate in Covington’s competition team. He advises international companies from a wide variety of industries on all aspects of EU competition law, including State aid, foreign subsidies, multi-jurisdictional merger control filings and antitrust investigations.

On 1 December 2024 the 2025-2029 College of Commissioners took office, led by President Ursula von der Leyen in her second term.

This blog explores what companies can expect from the new European Commission in the field of EU State aid.

Key takeaways

  • The Commission will establish a new State aid framework to allow EU Member States to grant State aid for (i) accelerating the roll-out of renewable energy, (ii) deploying industrial decarbonisation, and (iii) ensuring sufficient manufacturing capacity for clean tech “made in Europe” while preserving cohesion objectives.
  • Approval of State aid for Important Projects of Common European Interest (“IPCEIs”) will be made simpler and faster. The Commission may further expand the scope of IPCEIs to include innovations more broadly and possibly manufacturing projects.
  • The Commission will create a ‘European Competitiveness Fund’, aimed at supporting the development of strategic technologies and their manufacturing in the EU. Depending on its design, this fund may help level the playing field among EU Member States.
  • State aid rules will be revised to enable wider housing support measures, notably for energy efficiency and social housing. Other State aid rules will also undergo a revision during the 2025-2029 mandate, such as aid to the transport sector or for companies in difficulty.

Perpetuation of relaxed State aid rules for the green transition?

President Ursula von der Leyen announced in her political programme for the 2025-2029 mandate the need to have a new Clean Industrial Deal, to decarbonise, and to bring down energy prices.

As a key pillar of the EU Clean Industrial Deal, she called for the establishment of “a new State aid framework” (see mission letter to Executive Vice-President (“EVP”) Ribera, responsible for the ‘Clean, Just and Competitive Transition’ and thus for EU competition policy). This new framework will allow EU Member States to grant State aid for (i) accelerating the roll-out of renewable energy, (ii) deploying industrial decarbonisation, and (iii) ensuring sufficient manufacturing capacity for clean tech in the EU. It will build on the experience of the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (“TCTF”) and preserve cohesion objectives.

This new State aid framework may make more permanent the relaxed State aid rules in relation to the green transition.

As a response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, heavily subsidising the green transition, the Commission relaxed the EU State aid rules for the roll-out of renewable energy, industrial decarbonisation, and manufacturing in the EU/EEA of relevant equipment for the transition towards a net-zero economy (for more details, see our blogpost). The TCTF was remarkable in terms of industrial policy because, under general State aid rules, support to large businesses pursuing manufacturing projects is generally considered unnecessary – large companies have access to capital and those measures may be considered highly distortive. Such aid could traditionally only have been authorised by the Commission under strict conditions and in support of a new economic activity in disadvantaged areas under the Commission’s Regional Aid Guidelines (“RAG”).Continue Reading State aid – Outlook for the European Commission’s 2025-2029 Mandate

On 1 December 2024 the 2025-2029 College of Commissioners took office, led by President Ursula von der Leyen in her second term. This blog explores what companies can expect from the new Commission regarding the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (“FSR”).

The FSR was adopted in December 2022 to address distortions caused in the EU by foreign subsidies. It introduced two notification tools for prior clearance of concentrations and public procurement procedures – effective since 12 October 2023 – and an ex officio tool for investigations by the Commission into suspicious foreign subsidies – effective since 12 July 2023. For a detailed overview of the FSR, see our previous blog post.

Key takeaways

  • The first year of FSR enforcement has seen a higher number of FSR notifications than the Commission anticipated in its 2021 Impact Assessment, in terms of both transactions and public procurement procedures. The Commission has initiated four in-depth investigations. By contrast, the ex officio tool has rarely been used with only two investigations launched.
  • For its 2025-2029 mandate, the Commission is aiming to vigorously enforce the FSR, especially as regards concentrations.
  • The Commission appears willing to discuss possible amendments to the FSR (in particular, to the public procurement notification thresholds).

The first year of FSR enforcement

The first year of FSR enforcement has seen a higher number of FSR notifications than the Commission anticipated in its 2021 Impact Assessment. Based on data disclosed by officials at conferences: (i) DG COMP, responsible for the enforcement of the FSR in relation to concentrations, received more than 100 transaction notifications (with 98 cases closed), compared to the 30 initially anticipated; and (ii) DG GROW, responsible for the enforcement of the public procurement tool, received approximately 140 notifications, compared to the 36 initially anticipated.Continue Reading The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation – Outlook for the European Commission’s 2025-2029 Mandate

What are the key take-aways of the mission letter to Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, EVP-designate responsible for EU competition policy?

On 17 September 2024, European Commission (“Commission”) President Ursula von der Leyen (“President”), announced her proposed College of Commissioners (“College”) for her second 5-year term. The Commissioners-designate still need to be confirmed by the European Parliament (“EP”).

Of particularly interest from a competition policy perspective is the President’s mission letter (“Mission Letter”) to Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, the designated Executive Vice-President (“EVP-designate”) for a “Clean, Just and Competitive Transition”. The Mission Letter sets out the priorities and action plans of the European Commission for the next 5 years.

In this blogpost, we introduce EVP-designate Ribera and the tasks which the President has set for her, specifically on competition policy. 

About EVP-designate Ribera

Like many of her colleague Commissioners, past and present, EVP-designate Riberahas held several national ministerial posts: she has been serving as Spain’s Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge since 2018 and has had two consecutive terms as Vice-President of the Spanish Government since 2020. She has also been serving as a member of the Spanish Parliament since 2019.

A lawyer by training, EVP-designate Riberahas also held high-level private and public posts focusing on sustainable development and climate change. She served as Spain’s State Secretary for Climate Change (2008-2011) and as director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (2014-2018) – likely suitable experience given indications in her Mission Letter that these topics will only gain in relevance, both for the Commission and its competition portfolio.Continue Reading New Commissioner, New Mission, New Policy for Competition?

On 18 July 2024, the current President of the European Commission (“Commission”), Ursula von der Leyen, was reconfirmed by the European Parliament for a second 5-year term. As part of her reconfirmation, President von der Leyen delivered a speech before the European Parliament, complemented by a 30-page program, which lays down the Commission’s political program for the next five years.

A key pillar of the program – “A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness” – has the objective of combining competitiveness and prosperity with the achievement of the European Green Deal goals.

Specifically on competition policy, according to President von der Leyen, a new approach is needed to achieve this objective. This blog post projects where competition policy is likely headed in the 2024-2029 period by commenting on the most relevant paragraphs of the program.

Von der Leyen: “I believe we need a new approach to competition policy, better geared to our common goals and more supportive of companies scaling up in global markets – while always ensuring a level playing field. This should be reflected in the way we assess mergers so that innovation and resilience are fully taken into account. We will ensure competition policy keeps pace with evolving global markets and prevents market concentration from raising prices or lowering the quality of goods or services for consumers. We will look at all of our policies through a security lens.”

  • This statement reaffirms the classic principles underlying competition law, i.e., the focus on ensuring a level playing field, preventing market concentration, and ultimately avoiding a negative impact on prices/quality of goods or services.
  • However, the President’s comments recognize the impact of global dynamics and the need for EU companies to be able to respond to global pressures. In the context of Siemens/Alstom and Lufthansa/ITA, there is growing pressure from EU Member States to allow European champions and this program could signal an openness to that effect.
  • The President also calls for an increased focus on innovation and resilience in the substantive assessment of mergers. This could mean (i) that the Commission will expand its assessment of the impact of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) standards and security, (ii) that the Commission would be open to a greater role of wider efficiency justifications/public interest considerations in merger control and competition law assessments, and/or (iii) that the impact on the overall economic competitiveness of the EU, and the aim of geopolitical de-risking for critical supply chains and technologies, may play an increasingly important role in the assessment of mergers.

Continue Reading The 2024-2029 Commission Political Guidelines: Where Is Competition Policy Likely Headed?

On 31 May 2024, the European Commission (“Commission”) adopted an amendment to its Regional aid Guidelines (“RAG”), allowing EU Member States to grant higher amounts of aid to investment projects falling into the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform’s (“STEP”) objectives in disadvantaged areas of the EU. STEP is an EU initiative designed to boost the EU’s industrial competitiveness and reinforce EU sovereignty by supporting critical and emerging strategic technologies and their respective value chains.

Key takeaways

  • In the EU, large businesses can only receive State aid from Member States for their large investment projects (“LIPs”) in production facilities if their projects take place in disadvantaged areas of the EU. The conditions to access such State support and the maximum aid amount are laid down in the RAG.
  • STEP’s objectives are to support the development and the manufacturing of clean tech, digital technologies, and bio-tech.
  • The amendment to the RAG allows Member States to grant large businesses higher amounts of aid for their LIPs where they contribute to the STEP objectives.

Regional aid

Aid to large businesses pursuing LIPs is generally considered unnecessary and highly distortive because these businesses already have access to capital and are a significant presence on the market. Such aid can, in principle, only be authorised by the Commission under strict conditions and if it supports an initial investment in new production facilities, output diversification into new products, or a fundamental change in a production process.Continue Reading The Commission amends regional aid rules to foster support for strategic technology projects