The Commission’s Plans for Reform Procedural Reform the Significant Impact Test*

Philip LOWE

I will focus my remarks on two key issues, procedural reform and the socalled ‘economic impact test’.

However, before I go into these questions in more detail, I want to say a few words about our general approach to State aid control, and to try to set out the general considerations which underlay our more detailed proposals.

As Commissioner Monti said in his opening remarks this morning, more than any other Commission, this Commission has taken an economic approach towards State aid control. This has been reflected in our case-handling activities, where we have sought to extend the scope of State aid control in order to eliminate serious distortions of competitions in recently liberalised sectors or in the financial services sector. It has also been reflected in our more general policy work where we seek to ensure that State aid control is used as an instrument to further the broader economic objectives of the Community, including the construction of economic and monetary union, the development of undistorted competition in the internal market, and the economic reform process which underlies the so-called Lisbon Agenda.