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The European Commission’s revised State Aid Guidelines for Climate, Environment and Energy (CEEAG) will soon be adopted and enter into force in January 2022.
ClientEarth was recently granted access to the Opinion of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board concerning the impact assessment of the revision of the CEEAG. The findings in the Opinion raise serious concerns regarding the policy-making process within the Commission as well as the policy choice made regarding the regime of aid for energy intensive users (EIU). The latter allows Member States to grant reductions from electricity levies to EIU, which is highly controversial. Despite this, the Commission did not submit a thorough impact assessment of the possible policy choices, nor its preferred policy choice, to the Regulatory Scrutiny Board. Instead, it proposes to maintain an aid regime which is no more than business as usual, although this regime is not justified and goes counter the very objective of the CEEAG and the Green Deal.
ClientEarth and EEB have written to the European Commission raising their concerns.