On Tuesday 31 July, the European Commission approved most of the reductions in contributions to the public electricity service awarded by France to electricity-intensive companies between 2003 and 2015.
Whereas consumers of electricity in France must pay a surcharge on their electricity consumption for various reasons, the public authorities granted reductions to heavy energy-consuming and electricity-intensive businesses from 2003 onwards, to preserve their competitiveness at international level.
In March 2014, the Commission opened an in-depth investigation to determine whether these reductions were compatible with the EU law (see EUROPE 11049).
At the end of this investigation, the institution approved the reductions linked to support measures for renewable energies, high-efficiency co-generation, the financing of tariff equalisation and social tariffs, which it found were compatible with the state aid rules and, in particular, the 2014-2020 guidelines on state aid for environmental protection and energy.
However, the Commission found that certain reductions went beyond what was necessary to ensure the sustainable financing of the measures in question, as the ceilings for the beneficiary companies to finance the reduction measures themselves had not been met and certain beneficiaries did not fall within the scope of application of the provisions of the guidelines in this area.
France must now recover the surplus reduction amounts from the companies in question, a total which the Commission estimates at €50 million. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)