Zagadnienie pomocy publicznej udzielanej przez państwa członkowskie Unii Europejskiej na ochronę środowiska

The aim of the article is to present the conditions for the admissibility of public assistance in the European Union, with a particular focus on the principles applied to horizontal assistance in environmental protection. The source research in this area was carried out based on the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) and acts of secondary law (regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions). Particular emphasis is placed on the interpretation of EC guidelines on state assistance in environmental protection. An important conclusion is that EU subsidy law in the area of state assistance for environmental protection objectives should be analysed in the context of general rules governing public assistance in connection with the treaty provisions regarding environmental protection especially with “the polluter pays” principle and the principle of integrating environmental protection into sector policies. This means that the EU’s restrictive approach to granting public assistance for environmental protection has both an economic and a pro-ecological aim. The economic aim, which is to counteract the disruption of trade between member states, is clear, while it may be assumed that subsidising environmental protection is equally successful as imposing taxes on polluters. This leads to the conclusion that the first priority of public assistance for environmental protection is the realisation of economic aims, while ecological ones remain subordinate to them.