The 2006 judgment of the European Court of Justice in the Azores case regarding the European Commission's interpretation of the "selective criterion" of the state aid rules of the EC Treaty opened the door for the ECJ's judgment in the Basque Country case in 2008. This article examines these two decisions of the ECJ. Before doing so, the article describes the financial regime of the Basque Country, which forms the background of the Basque Country judgement.