Public Consultation: State Aid – Energy and Environmental Aid Guidelines (EEAG)
EuroACE responded to the European Commission’s public consultation on the revision of the Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy (EEAG).
State aid rules should support and accelerate the construction of energy efficient buildings, but mostly the financing of ambitious energy renovation projects. The EEAG update as of 2022 should serve both the implementation of the Green Deal and the 55% climate target by 2030, as well as the rollout of effective recovery plans.
In our response, we called for:
- Higher aid intensities or new aid forms for energy efficiency in buildings
- Widening the scope of eligible costs for aid going to energy efficiency in buildings, especially renovation: eligible costs should be understood as the total costs of the renovation, not only the additional investments linked to higher efficiency standards
- Not considering condominiums managing multi-apartment buildings, where most apartments are owned by natural persons, as internal market actors
- A reference to the Energy Efficiency First principle in the Recitals of the revised EEAG and as one of its ‘objectives of common interest’
- State aid for the energy renovation of buildings that targets the worst performing buildings of each segment of the stock, where most households in energy poverty live and where the capacity to use private capital is limited
