EU: from hydrogen to green houses, state aid framework updated

The European Commission has published the new

designing measures to be included in the national recovery and resilience plans: "The updated technical documents will help Member States to design measures that further contribute to the implementation of the European Green Deal", explains Palazzo Berlaymont.

Among the novelties, Brussels has modified the framework to facilitate investments in renewables, including hydrogen, in infrastructure for district heating, in the energy efficiency of buildings or in the acquisition of low- or zero-emission vehicles.

The new models developed by Brussels to facilitate state aid from member countries also include "electric charging stations and hydrogen stations for road vehicles, investments in other low-emission modes, innovative processors and semiconductor technology, cloud capacity.

The new guidelines therefore meet the Net-Zero strategy developed by the Commission to boost clean technologies in the EU and thus respond to the US Inflation Reduction Act.

In the Net-Zero plan, reference is made to the elaboration, in the next few months, of a European sovereignty fund which will help achieve the objectives of the Plan.

In the meantime, the 27 are reminded of the possibility of using existing funds, from the Recovery to the RepPowerEu up to the two funds for companies InvestEu and InnovationEu.    

“In March 2023, in a guidance document on RRPs in the context of REPowerEU, the Commission called on Member States to submit their amended plans with additional REPowerEU chapters by 30 April 2023,” recalls the European executive.

"The updated State aid templates provide Member States with important guidance and tools to ensure that their national recovery and resilience plans can

be implemented quickly.

This will help them put in place support measures to ease the clean energy transition and strengthen the EU's energy independence.

We continue to work closely with member states to help them achieve RePowerEU's goals, while protecting the level playing field in the single market," said EU Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager

.