AA quoted in Airport Policy News
Airport Policy and Security News #95
“When the lingua franca of Europe was Latin, commentators remarked on just how complex Europe was to govern. Nothing has changed. However, today the lingua franca is [European] Commission bureaucratese. Of all the complex bits of European governance, one of the most complex and difficult to explain has to be the prohibition on State Aid. No other country or region has rules that prohibit State Aid. Indeed, most countries look at ways to hand out largesse. Every trade association has entire departments devoted to begging for State Aid or distributing it once it arrives. Europe, as we so often see, is different. Europe’s rules prohibit handing out State Aid if it distorts any market. Given that the point of State Aid is to distort markets, that just about covers the field.”
-Andrew Charlton, “State Aid and Airports: Pork Barrel Meets Sausage Machine,” Aviation Intelligence Reporter, October 2013
Link to Airport Policy News