Judgment_paragraph 31 · AS Veejaam and OÜ Espo v AS Elering (C-470/20)

31It follows from the foregoing, on the one hand, that the effect of the adoption of the guidelines contained in the 2014 Guidelines is equivalent to the effect of a limitation imposed by the Commission on itself in the exercise of its discretion, so that, if a Member State notifies the Commission of proposed State aid which complies with those guidelines, the Commission must, as a general rule, authorise that proposed aid. On the other hand, the Member States retain the right to notify the Commission of proposed State aid which does not meet the criteria laid down by those guidelines and the Commission may authorise such proposed aid in exceptional circumstances (see, by analogy, judgment of 19 July 2016, Kotnik and Others, C‑526/14, EU:C:2016:570, paragraph 43).