On Monday 7 June, the European Commission launched a targeted public consultation inviting all interested parties to comment on the proposed revision of the guidelines on State Aid for environmental protection and energy (‘Energy and Environmental State aid guidelines’).
In particular, the Commission suggests, as we anticipated (see EUROPE 12730/5), allowing EU countries to subsidise renewable energy projects up to 100%.
The new ‘Climate, Energy and Environmental State aid guidelines’ provide for some changes:
- broadening the scope to support new areas (clean mobility, energy efficiency in buildings, circularity and biodiversity) and all technologies that can implement the European Green Deal, including support for renewable energy. It would be possible to allow aid amounts up to 100% of the financing gap and to introduce new aid instruments (Carbon Contracts for Difference);
- increasing flexibility and simplification, by introducing a simplified assessment of cross-cutting measures in a single section of the guidelines and by removing the requirement for individual notification of large environmental projects under aid schemes already authorised by the Commission;
- introducing safeguards to ensure that aid is effectively directed to where it is needed to improve climate and environmental protection, that it is limited to what is necessary to achieve environmental objectives and that it does not distort competition or the integrity of the single market. In certain circumstances, Member States setting up an aid scheme will need to consult stakeholders on the main features;
- aligning and ensuring coherence with relevant EU environmental and energy legislation and policies, in particular by phasing out subsidies to (the most polluting) fossil fuels, for which a positive assessment by the Commission under State aid rules is unlikely, given their significant negative environmental effects. Measures involving new investments in natural gas will only be covered by the guidelines to the extent that the investments are demonstrated to be compatible with the EU’s 2030 and 2050 climate targets.
In addition to the targeted public consultation launched today, the draft text of the Climate, Energy and Environmental State aid guidelines will also be discussed at a meeting of the Commission and Member States at the end of the consultation period. Both Member States and other interested parties will thus have ample opportunity to comment on the Commission’s draft proposal.
The new guidelines are expected to be adopted by the end of 2021.
Link to the project: https://bit.ly/3gdxRmc (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)