The European Commission's Executive Vice-President responsible for Competition Policy, Margrethe Vestager, told an online event organised by the Renew Europe group on Tuesday 22 September that she will shortly be launching a public consultation on how competition policy can support the European Green Deal.
Much of the State Aid that governments grant today already supports the environment and clean energy. “But we still want to see if there are ways to make the rest of Europe’s state aid spending greener”, said Commissioner Vestager.
Green bonus. One possibility could be to grant a kind of ‘green bonus’ that would allow governments to use more state aid for projects that really contribute to the EU's environmental objectives. “We could also look at how to build on the success of competitive tenders in keeping renewable energy costs down, by seeing if we could extend that approach to other areas”, she added.
Another possible idea is to establish strict rules requiring that state aid must not jeopardise the ‘European Green Deal’. “We might refuse to approve aid that would harm the environment, or would keep polluting factories or power plants operating. Obviously, that would have to happen within the limits of the Treaty, and in line with the rights of Member States”, said Ms Vestager.
The Commission can also see how to apply antitrust rules in a way that further supports industry's efforts to become greener. “We are looking at how we could give more clarity in our guidance on horizontal agreements between competitors”, she also highlighted. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)