The new State Aid Guidelines on Climate, Environmental Protection and Energy: what changes do they bring?

This chapter analyses the novelties introduced by the revised State Aid Guidelines on Climate, Environmental Protection and Energy (‘CEEAG’), applicable since January 2022. The CEEAG were adopted not only to replace the expired guidelines concerning environmentally friendly and energy activities, but also to serve the far-reaching objective of aligning state aid rules with the EU Green Deal (‘EGD’) policy framework, thus contributing to the transformation of the EU into a climate-neutral and environmentally sustainable economy by 2050. In this context, the chapter focuses on the new sectors eligible for receiving state aid and illustrates the complex compatibility assessment to which the respective activities are subject to under Art. 107(3), point (c), TFEU. Furthermore, it clarifies under which conditions investments relating to natural gas, as a transitional fuel, may receive public funding. In the final section, reference is made to the exclusion of nuclear energy activities from the scope of the CEEAG, even though these activities may be considered as ‘sustainable’ in the sense of the Taxonomy criteria.