Article 106 [Public and Privileged Undertakings and Services of General Economic Interest]

Article 106 TFEU is concerned with public undertakings and undertakings granted special or exclusive rights by the MS (privileged undertakings). It consists of three paragraphs. Article 106.1 TFEU (➔ para 8–40) specifies the application of the Treaty rules to public undertakings (➔ para 11–12) and to undertakings granted special or exclusive rights (➔ para 13–15). Article 106.2 TFEU (➔ para 41–76) subjects the application of the Treaty rules to public undertakings and privileged undertakings to a limited exception for services of general economic interest (SGEI) (➔ para 51–60) and for revenue-producing monopolies (➔ para 61). Its final paragraph, Article 106.3 TFEU (➔ para 77–89), provides for expedited enforcement of the provision by the Commission by allowing the Commission to address decisions to the MS applying Article 106 TFEU (➔ para 87–89), thus by-passing the standard enforcement mechanism procedure of Article 258 TFEU. In addition, Article 106.3 TFEU provides the Commission with specific and autonomous law-making powers (➔ para 81–84) to ensure the effective application of Article 106 TFEU, in this case by-passing the standard ordinary legislative procedure of Article 294 TFEU.