LEGAL AND POLICY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CONTROL OF STATE AID IN THE EU FINANCIAL SECTOR IN LIGHT OF THE NEW COMMISSION’S «BANKING COMMUNICATION». GUIDANCE FROM THE RESTRUCTURING OF THE BANKING SYSTEM IN SLOVENIA.

the article provides an analysis of the main legal and policy changes lately intro duced, with the adoption of the so called «2013 banking communication», to the temporary framework established (since 2008) by the European Commission, in response to the economic and financial crisis, with reference to the performance of its mandate to ensure compliance with EU State Aid rules and principles (also) in the financial sector. Specific attention is dedicated to the analysis of the new rules on enhanced burden-sharing requirements, now expressly entailing also the possible mandatory bail-in of subordinated debts of aided institutions as an additional mean to ensure that the amount of State aid is limited to the minimum necessary. The implications of main procedural change lately introduced in the field are also investigated, namely that in principle the Commission’s approval of the mandatory sound plan for the restructuring (or orderly winding down) of beneficiaries of State recapitalisations or asset relief measures has now to precede the granting the aid, and not coming after it, save for the very exceptional case where a Member State invokes the application of the provided « financial stability clause ». An analysis of the implications of the implementation of the resulting updated legal and policy framework is also offered, drawing on the experience of the State intervention implemented in the restructuring the banking sector in Slovenia. The latter represents indeed one of the first cases of application of the new rules and requirements of the « 2013 Banking communication » and additionally in a situation where many banks simultaneously needed State support. Furthermore in this case the Commission State aid decisions were adopted also by taking into consideration the results of the Asset quality review and Stress test (Aqr/St) of the national banking sector carried out by Slovenian authorities also following the recommendation formulated by the Commission under the «Macroeconomic imbalances procedure» (Mip), which is one of the key elements of the so called «six-pack» of legislative acts adopted to strengthen the monitoring and surveillance of macroeconomic policies in the EU and the euro area.