On Wednesday, the government adopted an emergency decree to create a state aid scheme worth 1.5 billion euros between 2022 and 2030 for large energy consumers, which was previously approved by the European Commission.
According to the Ministry of Energy, the new measures adopted by the regulatory act are aimed at establishing for the period 2022-2030 a state aid scheme for enterprises in industries that are considered to be exposed to a real risk of shifting carbon dioxide emissions due to significant indirect costs that they actually bear as a result of shifting costs on greenhouse gas emissions in the price of electricity.
The emergency order follows the European Commission’s decision to authorize a new €1.5 billion state aid scheme for energy-intensive businesses, which will provide partial compensation to large energy-consuming businesses facing higher electricity prices as a result of indirect emissions costs under the Emissions Trading System EU (ETS).
- SEE DRAFT GEO AND KEYNOTE HERE
Enterprises that collectively meet the following eligibility criteria on the date of registration of the funding application will benefit from these measures:
- a) develops active industrial activity in one of the relevant sectors and subsectors listed in the GEO Annex;
- b) costs incurred with indirect emissions in the period 2021-2030;
- c) does not register debts to the consolidated general state budget or to local budgets;
- d) is not in enforcement proceedings, insolvency, bankruptcy, judicial rehabilitation, dissolution, operational closure, liquidation or temporary suspension of activity;
- e) they are not companies in difficulty within the meaning of the European Commission Recommendations on State aid for rescuing and restructuring non-financial companies in difficulty;
- f) they are not the subject of decisions on the return of illegal or incompatible state aid with the internal market, in respect of which there is a decision of the European Commission on the return;
- g) does not have a debt that must be compensated as a result of certain decisions of the Ministry of Energy on recovery;
The body responsible for the administration of the state aid scheme is the Ministry of Energy.
In the period 2019-2021, a state aid scheme was introduced in Romania to support enterprises in sectors and sub-sectors exposed to a significant risk of displacement due to the transfer of the cost of greenhouse gas emissions to the price of electricity.
Payment of state aid was made for indirect emissions related to 2019-2020.
The total amount of state aid for 2019 was 399,437,091.82 lei for a number of 34 enterprises, respectively 637,623,005.80 lei for a number of 33 enterprises in 2020.
Beneficiaries of state aid became energy-intensive consumers engaged in activities in the field of fiber preparation and textile fiber spinning, leather clothing production, paper and cardboard production, iron ore mining, mining of minerals for the chemical industry and natural fertilizers, coke production, production of other basic inorganic chemicals substances, production of fertilizers and nitrogenous products, production of synthetic and artificial fibers, production of ferrous metals in primary forms and ferroalloys, aluminum metallurgy, production of lead, zinc, and metallurgy of tin and copper.
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Source: Hot News RO
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