by Dr. Kai-Dieter Classen, LL.M. (Berkeley), Deputy Director of the External Affairs Division of the Hamburg Port Authority
Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) enjoy broad fiscal sovereignty regarding their tax systems.
This freedom, however, is fenced in by the EU state aid law.
The General Court recently confirmed several of the European Commission's (COM) decisions regarding the illegality of exemptions from corporate tax for ports.
Moreover, these verdicts confirm the application practice of state aid law to ports in general.