Umweltschutz und EU-Beihilfenrecht

Within the framework of the green transition, EU State aid law constitutes an essential and highly suitable instrument for integrating environmental protection considerations while simultaneously safeguarding the internal market.
However, due to its primary law design, as well as the system and allocation of competences within EU State aid law, the definition set out in Article 107(1) TFEU is less suited to incorporating environmental considerations. By contrast, the exemptions under Article 107(3) TFEU already provide, under the current legal framework, a particularly appropriate basis for this purpose.
The current state of the European Commission's practice and the case law of the EU courts already reveal an approach that takes into account the importance of environmental protection. Nevertheless, the interpretation and application of EU State aid law still fall short of both its full potential and the significance of environmental protection.
Environmental protection holds a prominent position within the TFEU, in the sense of a "temporary primacy" of environmental protection. In order to adequately reflect this, additional State aid instruments can be utilized to give greater weight to environmental considerations.
This reveals a previously untapped potential of EU State aid law that goes beyond a mere manifestation of environmental considerations in the European Commission's soft law. In doing so, it is possible to achieve a balanced relationship between the importance of environmental protection and the core function of EU State aid law-the protection of the (ecologically qualified) internal market.