On February 24, 2025, an educational webinar on “EU State Aid Law Focusing on the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER)” was held as part of the cooperation between the Research Service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Institute for Legal Studies (Budapest, Hungary).

Dr. Mónika Papp, a researcher at the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies (Budapest), and a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Eötvös Loránd University, led the session.

During the webinar, participants:

- reviewed the fundamental principles of EU state aid regulation under Articles 107-109 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) and their impact on national policies of EU member states;

- discussed the circumstances in which state aid is deemed compatible with the internal market under the exemptions outlined in Article 107(2) and (3) of the TFEU;

- learned how the GBER mechanism simplifies state aid approval procedures and which categories of aid qualify for automatic exemption from the notification requirement to the European Commission;

- explored case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) related to state aid.

We are grateful all participants for the engaging discussion and insightful questions. Implementing European standards into national legislation requires deep understanding and readiness for change, and the Research Service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is proud to contribute to this process.

Simultaneous interpretation of the webinar was provided with the support of the EU project “Association4U”, making the event accessible to a wide audience.