EU Competition Policy after Lisbon: time for a review of the ‘state action doctrine’?

The Lisbon Treaty removed the establishment of ‘a system ensuring that competition in the internal market is not distorted’ as an objective of the Union. Even though largely rhetorical, this is only one among various recent political expressions of defiance towards EU competition policy. This essay attempts to address, to a limited extent, those political concerns by taking issue with the so-called ‘state action doctrine’ developed by the EU courts. In contrast with current case law, the key test in assessing the legality of State measures limiting competition ought to be whether they infringe the Union's internal market rather than competition rules