24/01/2024 (Agence Europe) – On Wednesday 24 January, the General Court of the European Union annulled the European Commission’s decision of June 2021 (see EUROPE 12734/21) to classify as State aid the German ‘Kraft-Wärme-Kopplungsgesetz’ (KWKG) scheme to support the production of electricity by high-efficiency cogeneration plants (excluding coal- and lignite-fired cogeneration plants) (Case T-409/21). In particular, the Court noted that this system does not oblige electricity network operators to pass on to their customers the KWKG levy recovered from large energy consumers, so that this levy is not a charge that the latter are obliged to pay. This levy, it concluded, cannot be considered as a tax or as a compulsory levy in law such as to characterise State aid. See the General Court’s judgment (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/ajn (MB)