State aid in cross-border cooperation projects

State aid is a legal matter which, even though it is based on clear principles, in practice is being governed by a number of secondary regulations and guidelines. Practice is acquired by the know-how gained in notification procedures with the European Commission and the decisions taken by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Thus State aid is a field of legal expertise where experience-based know-how is particularly important for taking adequate and proportionate decisions. Compared to other types of EU-programmes, European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) programmes are challenged by: - the fact that the range of possible activities is usually rather broad and there are hardly any standardised project types; - Funding volumes per partner are often quite small - thus from the perspective of national State aid authorities ETC is not a main concern.