Why does it take so long to get state aid approved by Brussels?

The European Commission is responsible for ensuring governments comply with the EU’s state aid rules. But are these rules applied fairly across all member states? Ruud van Druenen and Pieter Zwaan present an analysis of the time it takes for the Commission to process state aid cases. They find that although the duration of cases varies substantially, this variation is best explained by characteristics of the state aid measures themselves. They find no evidence that the Commission favours some member states over others when processing cases.