Alexander Rose Profile picture
Sep 29, 2020 8 tweets 5 min read Read on X
The UK Government has laid a Statutory Instrument to revoke EU State aid rules.

It’s controversial because at this time the UK won’t have a workable replacement regime in place on 1 January 2020.

legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2020/978…

• a thread • Image
On 9th September the Government announced that in a “no deal” scenario the UK will follow World Trade Organisation subsidy rules.

gov.uk/government/new…
But the WTO rules were never designed to regulate domestic subsidies.

For that reason they don’t set out the basic rules most people expect to see in place for subsidies.

eg. transparency & limiting subsidies so they apply to genuinely incurred costs.

tinyurl.com/yxn7e3z7 Image
Indeed State aid experts wrote to the Government to warn that WTO rules, by themselves, were not sufficient on 18 September.

This included strong #Brexit advocates such as Martin Howe QC of @lawyers4britain as well as @jamesrwebber and @GeorgePeretzQC

tinyurl.com/yxjbraw5 ImageImage
But this doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve seen the last of EU State aid.

The legislation allows cases to be brought (even after 1.1.2021) for existing subsidies and acknowledges the NI Protocol will apply EU State aid law for measures where trade between the EU and NI is affected. Image
But what we really need is a UK State aid regime in order to:

• coordinate public funding towards the UK’s economic priorities; and

• safeguard against wasteful excessive taxpayer funded subsidies.

Such a regime could also unlock trade talks with the EU. Image
It’s clear that compromises are being offered in negotiations with the EU on this subject.

theguardian.com/politics/2020/…
Therefore, @BorisJohnson should use the 93 days left by:

• appointing the @CMAgovUK as regulator of a UK regime via the UKIM bill;

• taking up the offer from experts to assist his Government with the drafting of a new regime; and

• accelerating a consultation.

*End* Image

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More from @AlexanderPHRose

Jan 11
The Teesworks report terms of reference pointedly do not cover the State aid / Subsidy Control compliance of the deals.

This matters because a transaction found to breach such law is capable of being set aside - potentially saving the taxpayer millions of pounds.

A short 🧵… Image
This is surprising given such areas of law are central to assessing regularity and propriety according to the Treasury’s “Managing Public Money” guidance.
Image
Image
Had the report cast doubt on the transactions, for example:

• that the transfer of 90% of the shares; or

• the transfer of the 110 acres described below

was not a commercial transaction, that would be helpful evidence in the event of a challenge brought by a competitor.
Read 5 tweets
May 15, 2023
In my view there are 3 main State aid / Subsidy Control questions which need answering in regard to the Teesside Freeport transactions.

So here’s a short 🧵 on these.
1) £200m+ appears to have been spent remediating the site.

The majority of the funding looks to have been committed when EU State aid rules applied.

If so, funding would need to meet the “German Land Preparation Scheme” requirements - but how have sections 4.3 and 4.4 been met? ImageImageImage
Although the UK has since left the EU, this matters because:

- the UK has international treaty commitments in respect of awards made when EU State aid law applied

- public authorities have obligations once they become aware unlawful aid has been given

lexxion.eu/en/stateaidpos… Image
Read 6 tweets
Apr 13, 2022
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund launches today - here’s a quick 🧵 on the main issues. 

1) the Conservative Party manifesto committed to setting up the UKSPF to replace EU funds lost to Brexit and that it would as “a minimum match the size of those funds in each nation”.

1/4
2) EU funds would have invested £10.85bn in the UK’s regions between 2021 and 2027, but the Government’s replacement fund has a much lower value.

2021 - £0
2022 - £400m
2023 - £700m
2024 - £1.5bn
2025 - unknown 
2026 - unknown
2027 - unknown

A gap of c.£8.25 billion. 🤦‍♂️

2/4
3) Focus at the launch will be on English region allocations.

For context EU Fund allocations in 2014-2020 were:

• Tees Valley £197m
• West Midlands £909m

NI, Scotland, Wales & Cornwall been promised the same as EU funds so less for other areas.

3/4

Read 7 tweets
Nov 8, 2021
A short 🧵 about the transparency flaw in the UK Subsidy Control regime.

I flagged this issue at a recent Select Committee appearance, but so far no steps have been taken to fix this.

Which is a big concern, because it affects how unlawful subsidies can be challenged…

1/4
Under the current Subsidy Control regime, a business can challenge an unlawful subsidy to a rival by going to court.

However a challenge must be brought in a short window that only starts when information about the subsidy is published on the national transparency website.

2/4
Yet the national transparency database is set up in such a way that key information is not available.

This award was posted in late October 2021, but there’s no way for a potential challenger to discover this.

That undermines the challenge process.

tinyurl.com/YPagb

3/4
Read 4 tweets
Sep 21, 2021
The Subsidy Control Bill has its second reading in Parliament tomorrow providing MPs with their first opportunity to debate the principles of this important piece of post-#Brexit legislation.

In this 🧵 I set out the main issues to look out for…

1/8 linkedin.com/posts/alexande…
1) Is the overall strategy correct?

The Subsidy Control Bill aims to create a more permissive system than under EU State aid rules.

Doing away with EU rules will be popular but how will free market minded MPs respond to a policy of loosening the controls on public funding?

2/8
2) Transparency Concerns

The Government’s anti-corruption Tsar @JohnPenroseNews has raised concerns about the transparency of the subsidy regime.

Indeed there are fewer subsidies listed on the national database than public bodies awarding subsidies

tinyurl.com/Subsy

3/8
Read 8 tweets
Jan 20, 2021
The European Commission has published a notice which pushes back on the UK government’s interpretation of when State aid law will apply under the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Is the honeymoon over? Will the EU start challenging UK subsidies?

ec.europa.eu/info/sites/inf…
You’ll recall that on 31 December, @beisgovuk published guidance on the new Subsidy Control regime.

The Northern Ireland Protocol section took a surprisingly robust approach to interpreting when EU State aid law needs to be applied and when it doesn’t.
Some of this was supported by the contents of a joint statement between the UK and EU, but crucially the words “liable to have an effect on trade” were downplayed.
Read 10 tweets

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