European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager announced a new Commission investigation into unfair foreign subsidies, during a speech at Princeton University on the EU’s progress in digital legislation (see other news).
“I can announce that today we are launching a new inquiry into Chinese suppliers of wind turbines. We are investigating the conditions for the development of wind parks in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria”.
Such investigations are made possible by the regulation on unfair foreign subsidies. The Commission has used it on three occasions in recent weeks (see EUROPE 13383/6, 13380/21), each time targeting Chinese companies taking part in calls for tender in the EU.
At the time of writing, the European Commission had not published a notice to open an investigation into wind farms. However, a source at the Commission confirmed to Agence Europe that the Commission had indeed taken the preliminary steps to open such an enquiry.
The majority of wind turbines deployed on the continent are manufactured in the EU, according to the WindEurope association, which is nevertheless concerned that imports from China will become increasingly prevalent at a time when the EU wants to grow its number of wind farms. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)