29/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - On 20 September, the European Commission authorised compensation that Spain intends to grant to electricity generators to meet the costs of fulfilling a public service obligation, namely producing certain volumes of electricity out of indigenous coal. The directive that governs the functioning of the EU electricity market allows member states to put in place such public service obligations, motivated by reasons of security of energy supply, within a limit of 15% of national electricity consumption. The temporary scheme will expire on 31 December 2014 but may be ended at an earlier stage by the Spanish authorities. The Commission ensured consistency between this measure and the coal regulation - present and new, proposed on 20 July 2010 - which allows specific types of state aid to the coal industry under certain conditions. (F.G./transl.jl)