The ideology of the social market economy developed a comprehensive model of the economic system. At its heart lies the free market mechanism based on competition. This model, however, is oriented toward the ultimate objective i.e. social progress. Accordingly, in the social market economy system, the role of the State is to correct the market mechanism in such a way as to achieve this goal. Thus social progress is seen by the social market economy as the justification for state intervention in the economy.

The social market economy is placed, as one of the guiding principles of the EU Economic Constitution, among the objectives of the EU provided in Art. 3 (3) TEU. Added to the Treaty only recently it has not so far significantly influenced the EU socio-economic model, including the process of enforcement of the EU competition law. Here the social market economy is seen primarily through the prism of the older concept of ordoliberalism, from which it derives. While ordoliberals saw the existence of free and equal competition as a final goal, the social market economy assumes the parallelism of social and market objectives.

The positioning of the social market economy among the common objectives of the EU and linking it with other values such as a "high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment" give rise to a new look at the objectives of EU competition law, taking into account not only economic but also social and sustainability considerations.

The paper investigates the extent of environmental objectives within the EU policy of State aids. The opportunity thereof is due to the innovations envisaged in the European Green Deal and to the forecast target of the climate neutrality. Therefore, the contribution examines the notion of State aid and the hypothesis that lead to a clearance decision of the Commission, through the peculiar lenses of their target, the environmental protection. Under Article 107(1) of the TFEU, it is possible to made it clear when a measure does not constitute State aid, while still granting environmental purposes. Pursuant to Article 107(2) and (3) of the TFEU, State aids can be considered compatible due to their environmental aims. The relevance of these exceptions has pushed the EU to enact the famous General Block Exemptions Regulation(s) (reg. No 651/2014 currently in force), with a section devoted to environmental aids, and the Commission to issue specific Guidelines. These measures have different legal effects: the former is binding and exempts from notification; the latter limits the margin of appreciation of the Commission in issuing a decision. Despite this, the effects of these measures, their approaches and contents are very similar: a grouping of different kind of aids according to their specific purpose, the setting of quantitative limits, the establishment of controls, the prohibition of certain clauses in the State aid measures. This approach is followed by the last enacted Commission’s Guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy 2022. They differ from the previous Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy 2014-2020 because they take into consideration the climate change issue, thus admitting that the fight against it can justify the grant of subsidies, and, consequently, for their detail, both in their list and in the description of the assessment from the Commission (for example, the regulation of the aid for the acquisition and leasing of clean vehicles deserves an autonomous chapter in the new Guidelines). This substantial reform positively reduces the contents’ overlap between the regulation and the Guidelines.

The final remarks focus on the development of the environmental protection through State aid within the current EU politics, in the perspective of the fight against the climate change.

This paper discusses one of the most significant problems that is functioning of the law enforcement system in practice and in theory. The objectives were formulated in reaction to the discussion that has been started a decade ago and concerns the future of the integration processes facing globalisation challenges. One of such challenges is to create mechanism which will enable to react on the unfair commercial practices in the world-wide dimension which cause infringement of consumer rights that affect a very large number of individuals across many Member States.

Against this background my paper aims at verification of the hypothesis saying that public enforcement of consumer collective interests can secure effective redress and at the same time it can guarantee high level of consumer protection. The discussion revolves around two research questions:

1. Does the EU have legal competence regarding public enforcement of consumer collective interests?

Traditionally, the European legislature has abstained from prescribing law enforcement provisions while harmonizing substantive laws throughout the EU. However, recently a number of EU legislative initiatives have been issued in the domain of public enforcement of consumer law, with the prime example of the Regulation on Cooperation between Member States for Consumer Protection (CPC Regulation). Since generally , according to the principle of procedural autonomy, enforcement is left in the hands of the Member States it is crutial to start the analysis from answering the question related to the competence of the EU in the field of consumer law enforcement. For this aim it is also vital to discuss to which extent the general EU competences might be used in this domain.

2. Does any EU-wide model of public enforcement of consumer law exist?

Although the responsibility for public enforcement belongs to the competence of the Member States, the EU case law has developed some general principles which significantly limited the principle of procedural autonomy of the Member States. According to three main requirements, national sanctions must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. This is repeated in many EU legislative texts, but it has never been subject to systematic research or review and it does not translates in there being any principled enforcement policy. Therefore, the research aims at answering the question whether, based on the EU case law and relevant legislative initiatives, it is possible to reconstruct the EU-wide general model of public enforcement of consumer law.