THE LEVEL PLAYING FIELD IN CRISIS MODE 75 particular, contribute to Sweden’s connectivity, which gives relevance to the criterion of a stable link with the territory of that Member State”166. Therefore, it seems that Member States can take into account where the aid has the biggest impact and focus their measures’ scope without being discriminatory167. Nevertheless, Ryanair announced that it would appeal against the judgments; it also has more than a dozen other pending challenges as regards aid measures to airlines. Therefore, a number of interpretative questions are still open. 7. PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS One year into the pandemic and still under strict curtailing measures in most European States, it is too early to draw conclusions about how State aid rules have helped or obstructed the fight against the economic consequences of the pandemic and the pandemic itself. The European Commission is still analysing the data sent by the Member States about the spending under different COVID-19 measures, and based on its conclusions, and the development of the pandemic, it will possibly change the rules further. So, it is still early days to make a final evaluation of the role of State aid in handling the crisis. We will know more once the temporary rules are no longer effect and Member State spending information becomes available through the publication and reporting requirements regulated in the Temporary Framework168. Still, these twelve months allows us to draw some preliminary conclusions, which could be updated once the pandemic is over and economies have bounced back. Some of these are of a more general nature, some of them relate to the sector of tourism. Our first finding is, that in these unprecedented times, the Commission, after a short period of silence and hesitation, reacted also in a remarkable fashion by giving large room for manoeuvre for Member States to grant aid under Article 107(3)(b) TFEU; the Commission also adopted a temporary framework to tackle the challenges of the 2008-2012 crisis, but that was far less flexible than 166 Paragraph 50 of Judgment T-238/20. 167 The judgments were also praised and criticised in by the academia. See: http://competitionlawblog.kluwercompetitionlaw.com/2021/02/19/ryanairs-food-envy-who-allocatescorona-aid/?print=print; https://www.lexxion.eu/en/stateaidpost/state-aid-may-be-limited-toundertakings-with-close-links-with-the-national-economy-part-i/; and https://www.lexxion.eu/en/stateaidpost/state-aid-may-be-limited-to-undertakings-with-close-links-withthe-national-economy-part-ii/ (accessed on 10 March 2021). 168 Points 88-90 of the Temporary Framework.
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