One of the foundations of market economy is competition. Its purpose is to ensure equal treatment of undertakings of market, regardless of its size and strength on the market. Protection of market competition includes among others a control system and state aid policy at the state level as well as at the regional and local level. Many countries have used certain measures of intervention with the aim of helping their companies and certain sectors of the economy which includes state aids. For years there has been a trend in the EU to reduce the amount of state aids. There are a number of grants that have been banned because they lead to distortions of market competition as they bring advantages for certain companies over the competition. The actual aim of state aids is that they are directed to companies to enable their economic growth and to act in terms of achieving the objectives of common interest. Despite the reduction in the amount of aids through the years, the advent of the crisis has forced some countries to increase the amount of aid to help companies and sectors to deal as painlessly with the crisis and to come out of it.