The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

11 crisis. To help Member States react swiftly to the development, the Commission promised that it would do its best to adopt the approving decisions within the shortest timeframe possible, namely within a couple of days instead of months. In the Annex of the communication the Commission further explained how the rules on rescue and restructuring aid 38 have to be applied to ease the situation of undertakings being in financial difficulty, and how the Commission would take into account the “exceptional and unforeseeable circumstances such as the COVID-19 outbreak”. The second part of the annex dealing with State aid rules explained briefly the application of Article 107(2)(b) TFEU to make good the damage directly caused by natural disasters or exceptional occurrences from State resources. On the basis of the fact that the communication did not show a really flexible approach and only emphasised the use of the existing rules, it was a bit of a shock to see that the Commission adopted its Temporary Framework only six days later, on 19 March 2020, to allow State aid to be granted under Article 107(3)(b). 4. The TFEU’s Core Provisions as Legal Base to Handle the Impacts of the Pandemic There are two main provisions in Article 107 of the TFEU, Article 107(2)(b) and Article 107(3)(b), which were referred to in Commission decisions to assess the compatibility of aid measures to handle the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first is Article 107(2)(b), which explicitly mentions compensation for damage caused by natural disasters or exceptional occurrences as compatible with the internal market. The second is Article 107(3)(b), under which the Commission may approve aid compatible with the internal market if it remedies a serious disturbance in the economy of a Member State. They will be explained in the next section in the order of their appearance in the TFEU. Article 107(3)(c) TFEU has also been cited by COVID-19 related decisions of the Commission, but only exceptionally, in a limited number of cases. 38 The legal basis of the relevant guidelines is Article 107 (3)(c) TFEU.