The EU wants proposals from member states on how to ease state aid rules

BRUSSELS, 13 january (Reuters) – On Friday Europe The Commission asked member states to submit proposals to ease state aid rules by January 25, as the bloc USAis considering measures to prevent it from diverting investments with its green energy subsidy package. .

Margrethe Vestager, vice-president of the Commission, in a letter addressed to the member states and seen by Reuters, “We need a strong Europe we need his reaction,” he said.

The bloc of 27 countries fears that Washington’s 430 billion dollar (400 billion euro) Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) generous tax EU businesses with concessions and car from producers to green technology producers Europe can put their companies in a disadvantageous position.

In December, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, of the EU USA said it would adjust state aid rules to prevent investment flight caused by the package.

Vestager said that the Commission has already done a lot and within the framework of the crisis mechanism adopted after Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, 672 billion EUR (728 billion dollars) approved the state aid.

According to him, more than two-thirds of the money goes to the EU from Germany (53%) and France (24%), reported by Italy with more than 7%.

In her letter, Vestager proposed changes in the current crisis mechanism to simplify the calculation of the aid amount and make its approval faster offer did.

“I would like to extend the scope of the existing simplified provisions to cover all renewable energy technologies and provide simpler options for member states to assess how much aid they can give to each project. offer I do,” he said.

Vestager also recommended the creation of anti-displacement assistance for green investments in strategic sectors.

“I want new investments in production facilities, including tax I envisage special provisions to be supported by concessions”, he writes in his letter.

“These new provisions aim to prevent the risk of unfairly directing investments to third countries outside Europe.”

Vestager added that this aid should be limited in time, targeted at sectors where such a risk actually exists and proportionate in terms of aid amounts.

(1 euro = 1.0827 dollars / 1 dollars = 0.9233 euros)

Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, written by Sabine Siebold; Edited by Hugh Lawson

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2023-01-14 04:01:30
Source – reuters

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