14-08-2015

Germany's capacity reserve likely in breach with EU law

The cep already last month pointed to breaches of EU principles

Last month’s decision by Germany's government to pay utilities to shift power capacity to a coal-fired reserve from 2017 may well breach EU rules, legal experts at the German parliament have found, EurActiv reported citing a Reuters story. The legal experts concluded that the plans could be seen as a subsidy that would need EU approval. The cep noted already last month in a paper that transferring the power plants to a capacity reserve without prior tendering procedures breaches the principle of a competitive EU internal energy market.