Navigating the legal landscape of state aid regimes for supporting industrial policies objectives: a study on the operational coordination role of the state aid framework

... Amid growing concerns of intensifying geo-economic rivalries, the European Commission (‘the Commission’) unveiled its ‘Competitiveness compass for the EU’ on 29 January 2025,1 charting a new strategic course to ensure that the European Union (EU) remains a major hub for innovation and industrial competitiveness. This communication is fully in line with European action undertaken so far aimed at strengthening not only the competitiveness of the Union but also ensuring the dual transition of the industrial sector, both from an environmental and digital standpoint. In this context, the ‘Clean Industrial Deal’ (CID)2 initiative proposes a roadmap to ensure Europe’s decarbonization goals and its pursuit of competitiveness can go hand in hand, as advocated in the Draghi Report. In order to support the objectives pursued by the CID, the Commission adopted on 25 June 2025 new State aid guidelines (the ‘Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework’ or CISAF) to encourage public funding for the deployment of renewables, industrial decarbonization, and clean tech manufacturing capacities, all of which are key for the green transition and to support the competitiveness of strategic sectors both most affected and most critical to this transition.3