{"id":67343,"date":"2021-12-22T07:45:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T05:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/?p=67343"},"modified":"2021-12-22T16:07:54","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T14:07:54","slug":"state-aid-commission-endorses-the-new-guidelines-on-state-aid-for-climate-environmental-protection-and-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/csr-news-en\/state-aid-commission-endorses-the-new-guidelines-on-state-aid-for-climate-environmental-protection-and-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"State aid: Commission endorses the new Guidelines on State aid for Climate, Environmental protection and Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\"><p>The College of Commissioners today endorsed the new Guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy (\u2018CEEAG&#8217;). The CEEAG will be formally adopted in January 2022 and will be applicable from that moment. The new rules involve an alignment with the important EU objectives and targets set out in the European Green Deal and with other recent regulatory changes in the energy and environmental areas and cater for the increased importance of climate protection. The new rules create a flexible, fit-for-purpose enabling framework to help Member States provide the necessary support to reach the European Green Deal objectives in a targeted and cost-effective manner.<\/p>\n<p>The State aid rules endorsed today support projects for environmental protection, including climate protection and green energy generation. They include sections to support the decarbonisation of the economy in a broad and flexible manner open to all technologies that can contribute to the European Green Deal, including renewables, energy efficiency measures, aid for clean mobility, infrastructure, circular economy, pollution reduction, protection and restoration of biodiversity as well as measures to ensure security of energy supply. The rules aim at helping Member States meet their ambitious EU energy and climate targets, at the least possible cost for taxpayers and without undue distortions of competition in the Single Market. The Guidelines also aim at facilitating the participation of renewable energy communities and SMEs, as important drivers for the green transition.<\/p>\n<p>The revised Guidelines include important adjustments to align the rules with the Commission&#8217;s strategic priorities, in particular those set out in the European Green Deal, and with other recent regulatory changes and Commission proposals in the energy and environmental areas, including the Fit for 55 package.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, the CEEAG:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Broaden the categories of investments and technologies that Member States can support to cover all technologies that can deliver the European Green Deal.<\/li>\n<li>Cover aid for numerous areas relevant for the Green Deal. This includes new or updated sections on aid for the prevention or reduction of pollution other than due to greenhouse gases, including noise pollution<\/li>\n<li>Introduce changes to the current rules on reductions on certain electricity levies for energy intensive users. The rules aim at limiting the risk that, due to these levies, activities in certain sectors move to locations where environmental disciplines are absent or less ambitious than in the EU.<\/li>\n<li>Introduce safeguards to ensure that the aid is effectively directed where it is necessary to improve climate and environmental protection, is limited to what is needed to achieve the environmental goals and does not distort competition or the integrity of the Single Market. In this respect, the CEEAG will for example enhance stakeholder participation in the design of large aid measures requiring Member States to consult stakeholders on their main features.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure coherence with the relevant EU legislation and policies in the environmental and energy fields, by, among others, ending subsidies for the most polluting fossil fuels, for which a positive assessment by the Commission under State aid rules is unlikely in light of their important negative environmental effects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The new Guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy follow an evaluation of the existing rules, the Energy and Environmental State aid guidelines (EEAG), conducted as part of the State aid Fitness Check and a study carried out by external consultants. The Commission also carried out an extensive consultation of all interested parties on the proposed revised rules which yielded more than 700 contributions. The process has involved Member States, business associations, interest groups, individual companies, NGOs and citizens. The review also reflects the Commission&#8217;s experience stemming from its case practice in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>In autumn 2020, the Commission also launched a European debate on how competition policy can further support the objectives of the European Green Deal, with a view to ensuring that competition rules and sustainability policies work together in the best possible way. The process started with a call for contributions and was followed by a conference hosted by Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager in February 2021. The contributions received have also fed into the new Guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_21_6982\">European Commission<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The College of Commissioners today endorsed the new Guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy (\u2018CEEAG&#8217;). The CEEAG will be formally adopted&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":43017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32,77],"tags":[124,2713,16679,16678,7179,16677],"class_list":["post-67343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-csr-news-en","category-weeks-highlights","tag-energy","tag-environmental-protection","tag-for-climate","tag-guidelaines","tag-state","tag-state-aid-commission","wpcat-32-id","wpcat-77-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/EC.jpg?fit=100%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67343"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67434,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67343\/revisions\/67434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}