The European Commission had rightly approved the aid which the United Kingdom plans to grant to Unit C of the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant for the development of new nuclear power generation capacity, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Tuesday 22 September (Case C-594/18 P), thus agreeing with the conclusions of the Advocate General communicated in May (see EUROPE 12482/30).
On 8 October 2014, the Commission had given its green light to three State Aid measures envisaged by London, finding them to be in line with EU State Aid (Article 107 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU - TFEU).
The first of these measures aims to ensure price stability for electricity sales during the operational phase of Hinkley Point C. The second is a commitment by the UK Government to pay compensation to NNB Generation, the future operator of Unit C of the plant, in the event of an early closure of the plant on political grounds. Lastly, the third one consists of a UK credit guarantee on the bonds to be issued by NNB Generation.
Austria had then tried unsuccessfully to have the Commission's decision annulled by the General Court of the EU on the grounds, inter alia, that the construction of a new nuclear power plant would not constitute an objective of common interest,
In today's judgment, the Court finally concluded that the construction of a nuclear power plant may benefit from State Aid approved by the Commission, thus dismissing the appeal brought by Vienna.
According to the Commission, although Article 107 TFEU stipulates that the proposed aid must not adversely affect trading conditions to an extent contrary to the common interest, it does not require the proposed aid to pursue an objective of common interest.
However, the Court also clarified that State Aid for an economic activity linked to nuclear energy, which, if examined, would reveal that it infringes environmental rules, cannot be declared compatible with the Internal Market.
See the judgment of the Court: https://bit.ly/2G0Ol2w (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)