This thesis analyzes the systemic transformation of subsidy control within the European Union following the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market (Foreign Subsidies Regulation, FSR). Its central aim is to assess whether the FSR constitutes a coherent response to the structural enforcement gap between EU State aid law and the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement), and to determine how it reshapes the architecture of EU external economic governance.
The study situates the FSR within the broader evolution of the EU’s trade defense framework, assessing its relationship with traditional instruments such as anti-dumping and countervailing measures, as well as with more recent autonomous tools. It then undertakes a doctrinal analysis of the FSR’s substantive and procedural structure, focusing on the notion of financial contribution, the distortion assessment, the integrated balancing mechanism, and the system of notification and redressive measures.
A dedicated chapter addresses the international dimension by analyzing the relationship between the FSR and WTO subsidy law. A further comparative chapter examines the interaction between the FSR and EU State aid law, identifying both conceptual parallels and structural divergences.
The thesis argues that the FSR establishes a hybrid regulatory model that bridges internal market protection and international economic law. By introducing centralized and preventive scrutiny of foreign subsidies, the Regulation reflects the Union’s effort to reconcile market openness with regulatory autonomy in an increasingly state-driven and geopolitically fragmented global economy.