Open AccessIndustrial policy and competition policy. State aid and the restructuring of the European steel industry in the 1980s
Author(s) -
Miguel Á. Sáez-García,
Pablo Díaz-Morlán
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
revista de historia industrial
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2385-3247
pISSN - 1132-7200
DOI - 10.1344/rhiihr.v30i82.31607
Subject(s) - restructuring , competition (biology) , commission , european commission , state (computer science) , industrial policy , european union , european community , economic policy , member state , business , economics , political science , member states , international trade , finance , ecology , algorithm , computer science , biology
Using documents from the Historical Archives of the European Union, the article assesses the results of the restructuring of the European Community steel sector carried out at the beginning of the 1980s, considered to be the first European industrial policy. The article concludes that State aid control by the European Commission, through the so-called aid codes, was the main tool of the Community restructuring policy and contributed to resolve the crisis that the sector had been suffering from the mid-1970s, even though the objectives set by the Commission were not fully achieved.