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My thoughts on #britishsteel as 1) the @ukLabour Parliamentary Candidate for the constituency which contains one of the sites (Skinningrove) and 2) as a qualified solicitor - who spent 5 years specialising in European Competition Law at one of the top firms in the UK. 1/10
When 5k jobs are at directly at risk (& another 20k jobs in the supply chain affected) the Govt must do everything it can. #BritishSteel needs £30m. IPPR has calculated it collapsing would lead to £2.8bn in lost wages & cost the Govt £1.1bn in lost revenue and extra benefits 2/10
There are indeed limits on how the Govt can step in under EU State aid laws. However, the UK government has a real tendency to use these rules as an excuse for when they simply don’t want to intervene. The UK has given much less aid than most other European governments 3/10
My big concern is that the Tory Government and the Tory MP in the area @simonclarke will simply cite State aid as an easy reason not to intervene. 4/10
Having dusted off my old State aid textbook (disclaimer - not my area of practice anymore - and I only know what is in the public domain) - it seems to me there are potential arguments that could be run that the proposed aid would be compatible with the internal market. 5/10
For example Article 107(3)(b) - ‘to remedy a serious disturbance in the economy of a Member State’ was used to bail out banks in 2008. #BritishSteel is citing Brexit as a key factor - is that not a serious economic disturbance? 6/10
There also seems plausible arguments that this aid would promote the economic development of areas with low standards of living (107(3)(a)) and to promote the development of certain economic activities/areas (107(3)(c)) 7/10
I’m not saying these are easy arguments to run - but it is worth a shot - given the jobs at stake and the strategic importance of the steel which underpins our country’s defence, our automotive sector, our aerospace industry and our construction industry. 8/10
I hope the Government has engaged decent State aid lawyers and - if it chooses not to intervene - it publishes a detailed summary of the advice received as to why specifically it felt investment or nationalisation would be against State aid rules. 9/10
But I fear it will roll out the old trope that ‘the EU stops us helping’ - and thousands of jobs will be lost - and the Skinningrove community will suffer. 10/10 @TeessideLive @CommunityUnion @unite @northernecho @BBCRichardMoss @BBCTees
