This chapter builds upon the Irish policy analysis undertaken in the preceding chapter by analysing and contextualising the importance of the EU state aid dimension in the operation of the Irish tax expenditures system. State aids threaten the integrity of the European Union’s fundamental freedoms, by introducing restrictions along national grounds that destabilise the free movement of goods and services within the EU’s borders. Film, TV and digital games tax expenditures are state aids which require approval from the European Commission under the cultural criterion of Article 107(3)(d) Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This application process requires alignment with the conditions of the Commission’s soft law document, the Cinema Communication 2013. The incentives must be proportionate, necessary and promote culture. Pragmatically, the Commission has accepted that expenditures might have both a cultural and an industrial rationale. This key aspect of supranational policy is underexplored in the literature on tax expenditures. Here it is usefully put into conversation with academic discourses on EU audiovisual policies, integration theories and competition law to provide further context for the policy decision made at national level.