Abstract
At first sight the potential discrepancy between competitive behavior of market participants, trade rules and the basic notion of sustainable development may seem to be of a negligible importance. However, during the interactions of market processes with sustainability goals through various levels of support, provided by public or private entities problems arise, even more so in the light of the commitments of the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and corporate social responsibility principles. This Article aims to address the most obvious overlappings between these areas under the coverage of legal provisions regulating the grant of state aid, subsidies and policies related to mutual cooperation of private subjects towards achieving sustainability. The purpose is to draw conclusions regarding the criteria taken into consideration during the evaluation of competition distorting behaviors in case of environmental and sustainable energy state aid, subsidy- and contract-based cooperation and coalitions among private entities.
Full PaperPaolo Davide Farah
Founder, President and Director
Professor Paolo Davide Farah is Founder, President and Director of gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives forSustainable Development, Full Professor(with tenure) at West Virginia University, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences,John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics, Department of Public Administration and “Internationally Renowned Professor/Distinguished Professor of Law” (Full Professor level) at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), Law School, Beijing, China.
Tivadar Ötvös
Research Associate
Tivadar Ötvös, Research Associate at gLAWcal, Master Candidate at College of Europe in Bruges and EU commission Marie Curie Fellow at Tsinghua University and at Beijing Normal University (Beijing, China). PhD in Civil Law at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice - specialization: Legal Principles.
Summary
At first sight the potential discrepancy between competitive behavior of market participants, trade rules and the basic notion of sustainable development may seem to be of a negligible importance. However, during the interactions of market processes with sustainability goals through various levels of support, provided by public or private entities problems arise, even more so in the light of the commitments of the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and corporate social responsibility principles. This Article aims to address the most obvious overlappings between these areas under the coverage of legal provisions regulating the grant of state aid, subsidies and policies related to mutual cooperation of private subjects towards achieving sustainability. The purpose is to draw conclusions regarding the criteria taken into consideration during the evaluation of competition distorting behaviors in case of environmental and sustainable energy state aid, subsidy- and contract-based cooperation and coalitions among private entities.
Competition law and Sustainable Development
July 4, 2018