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Saatja: "Kristo Kaasik" Saaja: "MKM info" Teema: FW: State Aid SA.102228 (2022/NN) – Estonia – Amendment to the budget of the support scheme for electricity produced from renewable sources and efficient cogeneration Kuupäev: 2023-03-03 09:22 Tere! Kas oleks võimalik antud kirjavahetus deltas registreerida ning panna tööülesanne täitmiseks minule. Parimat Kristo From: SCHWALL Guillaume <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2023 1:41 PM To: Kristo Kaasik <[email protected]> Cc: RITTER Peer <[email protected]> Subject: State Aid SA.102228 (2022/NN) – Estonia – Amendment to the budget of the support scheme for electricity produced from renewable sources and efficient cogeneration Dear Kristo, Thank you for your email. As you may know, in accordance with the case law of the Court (judgment of 21.3.2013, Magdeburger Mühlenwerke v Finanzamt Magdeburg <https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=135404&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=303012> , C-129/12, ECLI:EU:C:2013:200, paragraph 40; of 6.7.2017, Nerea <https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=192404&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=303369> , C‑245/16, ECLI:EU:C:2017:521, paragraphs 32 and 33; of 9.6.2020, Kerkosand v Commission <https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=230798&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=303615> , T-745/17, ECLI:EU:T:2020:400, paragraph 85) the definition of ‘date of granting of the aid’ in EU State aid regulations (eg. Art. 2 (28) GBER; Art. 3(4) De Minimis Regulation) provides that it is the date when the legal right to receive the aid is conferred on the beneficiary under the applicable national legal regime, irrespective of the date of payment of the aid to the undertaking. You have referred to recital 38 of the 2017 Commission Decision, i.e. to your submission that any aid applicant who meets the requirements set in the law (Electricity Market Act (EMA)) would receive a subsidy under the existing aid scheme and that Estonian authorities have no discretion regarding the granting or not of aid to a specific aid applicant that meets the legal and technical requirements. You supported the conclusion in that recital that “in such a case the confirmation of the aid by the Member State is automatic and can therefore be assumed as soon as a project meets the conditions for aid set in the law”. You have also confirmed that the Aidu and Purtse projects were included in the budget increase calculation. In light of the definition of granting of aid and your submissions referred to above, we understood that the EMA granted the right to the aid and hence that the aid was granted when the provision entered into force, before the end of 31.12.2021 (end of the EEAG). This also includes the Aidu and Purtse projects. Therefore, can you please: * correct your submission that aid to the Aidu and Purtse projects will be granted automatically when they start production? * confirm, based on the definition of granting and your submissions that the right to receive the aid was grante by an EMA provision entered into force before the end of 2021, that any aid under the measure as amended by the notified aid budget increase has been granted by 31 December 2021 at the latest, which is the expiry date of the EEAG. And that no aid has been or will be granted under the measure as amended after 31 December 2021? Otherwise, I am afraid we will not be in a position to adopt swiftly the decision, based on the EEAG only. Thank you. Best regards Guillaume GUILLAUME SCHWALL Case Handler European Commission DG Competition State aid: Energy & Environment (Unit B3) MADO 24/006 Place Madou 1 B-1210 Brussels/Belgium +32 2 29 52544 [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> <https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/stronger-europe-world/eu-solidarity-ukraine_en> Disclaimer: The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission. This message may contain legally privileged or confidential information. Any use of this information other than by the addressee is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please inform me immediately and destroy the message. Thank you for your co-operation. From: Kristo Kaasik <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2023 10:40 AM To: SCHWALL Guillaume (COMP) <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Cc: RITTER Peer (COMP) <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: RE: State Aid SA.102228 (2022/NN) – Estonia – Amendment to the budget of the support scheme for electricity produced from renewable sources and efficient cogeneration Dear Guillaume, As we explained in our 30.05.2022 letter no 17-7/2022/3778-1 to European Commision there are two wind park projects (Purtse and Aidu) that met the requirements set for an existing producer by 31 December 2016, but have not yet started production mainly due to height restrictions stemming from national defense reasons to both of the wind parks. In the same letter, we requested the Commission's assessment on, whether it is possible to interpret the different state aid decisions in combination in the way that: a) there is no deadline to start paying the aid for projects that met the requirements of an existing producer by 31 December 2016 and; b) that this scheme allows payments to be made for a maximum of 12 years from the end date of the scheme, ie until 2032. We also confirmed in our 02.02.2023 letter concerning amendments to the budget of the RES and CHP support scheme, that the Purtse and the Aidu projects were positively assessed which means they had started work on the investment project concerning that generating installation by 31 December 2016. Only those who were positively evaluated, including Aidu and Purtse projects, were included in the budget increase calculation. Estonia continues to be of the opinion that it is possible to start paying support when production starts and pay support up to 12 years after the end of the scheme, i.e. until 2032 at the most. As a result, the aid to the Aidu and Purtse projects will be granted automatically when they start production, probably in 2023/2024. If we have misunderstood something, we ask for clarification in order to continue granting the aid correctly. Best regards, Kristo From: SCHWALL Guillaume <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, February 6, 2023 1:22 PM To: Kristo Kaasik <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Cc: RITTER Peer <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: State Aid SA.102228 (2022/NN) – Estonia – Amendment to the budget of the support scheme for electricity produced from renewable sources and efficient cogeneration Dear Kristo, Could the Estonian authorities please confirm that no aid has been or will be granted under the measure (scheme in support of ‘existing’ producers) as amended by the notified amendment (budget increase) after 31 December 2021? Thank you. Best regards, Guillaume Schwall GUILLAUME SCHWALL Case Handler European Commission DG Competition State aid: Energy & Environment (Unit B3) MADO 24/006 Place Madou 1 B-1210 Brussels/Belgium +32 2 29 52544 [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> <https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/stronger-europe-world/eu-solidarity-ukraine_en> Disclaimer: The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission. This message may contain legally privileged or confidential information. Any use of this information other than by the addressee is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please inform me immediately and destroy the message. Thank you for your co-operation.