Brussels, 25/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 25 November, the European Commission approved the German state aid regime in favour of renewable energy sources, although partial recovery was ordered.
In late 2013, the European institution initiated investigations into the German law 'EEG 2012', which granted aid for the production of energy from renewable sources, between January 2012 and the end of July 2014 (EUROPE 10988). The aid was funded from a levy applied to electricity suppliers and passed on to end consumers. Energy-intensive companies received reductions on the amount they were to pay to their electricity suppliers.
The main conclusions of the investigation are as follows: - the German law included state aid. Germany made use of specific public resources, collected from the levy brought in for this purpose, in order to support the production of electricity from renewable sources. It also identified the consumers which should pay less than others; - German support to the production of renewable energy was in line with European rules, as it was limited to compensating the extra costs involved in producing electricity from renewable sources compared to market prices. This support consisted principally of feed-in tariffs and premiums to producers of renewable energy; - the levy reductions granted to energy-intensive companies are mostly compatible with the guidelines on state aid in the field of the environment and energy which have been in force since July 2014 (EUROPE 11127). These guidelines provide a framework to grant energy-intensive companies reductions from the funding of support for renewable energy.
However, some of the reductions granted under the 'EEG 2014' go beyond the scope of the EU rules. The beneficiaries will have to reimburse the amount corresponding to the surplus reductions in order to remedy the competition distortion. This recovery relates to 2013 and 2014. (MB)