{"id":118130,"date":"2025-06-25T15:39:53","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T13:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/?p=118130"},"modified":"2025-07-17T11:43:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T09:43:32","slug":"subsidies-cant-fix-weak-regulation-eeb-warns-on-eus-new-state-aid-rules-for-clean-industries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/subsidies-cant-fix-weak-regulation-eeb-warns-on-eus-new-state-aid-rules-for-clean-industries\/","title":{"rendered":"Subsidies can\u2019t fix weak regulation, EEB warns on EU\u2019s new state aid rules for clean industries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Today the European Commission adopted its Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework<\/strong><i> <\/i><strong>(CISAF), a key tool to steer public support towards Europe\u2019s green and industrial transition. The updated rules include some welcome improvements, such as stronger conditions for renewable hydrogen, efficiency, and clean tech. But they still fall short of ensuring public money is used only for proven, effective decarbonisation technologies.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-teams=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><b><u><span lang=\"EN-US\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Quote<\/span><\/u><\/b><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><i><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u201c<\/span>While the CISAF supports green investments and rightly requires recipients of public funds to contribute directly to the green transition, it still leaves loopholes that allow EU governments to fund fossil gas and costly, unproven technologies like carbon capture and storage<\/i><i><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0(CCS)<\/span>. Subsidies should not serve as a patch for weak regulation and must be tied to enforceable environmental and social conditions. Public money must not become a lifeline for wealthy polluters under the guise of a green transition<\/i><i><span lang=\"EN-US\">,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-US\">said<b>\u00a0Riccardo Nigro,\u00a0<\/b>Senior Policy Officer for Zero Pollution Industry at EEB.<i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><i><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><b><u><span lang=\"EN-US\">The good<\/span><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Support for renewable hydrogen<\/b>: Prioritises renewable hydrogen produced with wind and solar<span lang=\"EN-US\">,\u00a0<\/span>not fossil-based alternatives.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Strong DNSH safeguards<\/b>: Investments in renewables and low-carbon fuels must comply with the \u201cDo No Significant Harm\u201d principle.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Mandatory green investment allocation<\/b>: Aid recipients must allocate\u00a0<b>at least 50%<\/b>\u00a0of public funds to investments that support the green transition and reduce energy system costs (e.g. replacing fossil fuels with renewables)<span lang=\"EN-US\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Material efficiency recognised<\/b>: Projects improving material efficiency are given priority status.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>High environmental standards for cleantech<\/b>: Cleantech manufacturers must use the\u00a0<b>best available low-emissions production technologies<\/b>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b><u><span lang=\"EN-US\">The bad<\/span><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Pollution costs ignored<\/b>: The framework fails to internalise negative externalities. Public money may subsidise polluters without accounting for the environmental and health costs they impose.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Subsidies compensating for weak policy<\/b>: It assumes industrial underperformance stems from market failures, when in many cases it\u2019s\u00a0<b>poor regulation and weak enforcement<\/b>. Public aid should not replace strong laws.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Public interest not guaranteed<\/b>: Aid should be clearly tied to the EU\u2019s environmental and strategic autonomy goals<span lang=\"EN-US\">,\u00a0<\/span>but the revised framework leaves too much room for interpretation.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Fossil gas still eligible<\/b>: Despite safeguards (Art. 146\u2013148), fossil gas investments remain allowed (Art. 128), undermining climate goals.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>False solutions in scope<\/b>: Technologies listed under the Net-Zero Industry Act<span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0(<\/span>including\u00a0<b>nuclear and CCS<\/b><span lang=\"EN-US\">)\u00a0<\/span>are eligible (Annex II), potentially diverting funds from cleaner, proven solutions.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Weak CCS conditions<\/b>: CCS requirements don\u2019t ensure projects are a last resort or that they won&#8217;t hinder more effective alternatives like efficiency or electrification.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Electricity subsidies not green-targeted<\/b>: Price reduction measures (Art. 112) apply regardless of whether the electricity is from clean or fossil sources.<\/li>\n<li class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><b>Non-binding social &amp; circular goals<\/b>: The framework only encourages Member States to include environmental and social conditions<span lang=\"EN-US\">;\u00a0<\/span>there are no enforceable requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>ENDS<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-teams=\"true\">Read our full response to the consultation on the CISAF <a href=\"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/library\/consultation-on-the-draft-new-state-aid-framework-to-support-the-clean-industrial-deal\/\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today the European Commission adopted its Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), a key tool to steer public support towards Europe\u2019s green and industrial transition.<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-press-release","category-homepage"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Industrial-Emissions-7.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}