Mott's Blog

Any day now we expect the European Commission, DG Competition, to announce its decision of the Polish green certificate system as state aid.  Several issues will be addressed and possibly some complex cost recovery issues raised but not entirely answered. The thrust of the complaint in SA 37244 was that support of co-firing was too much and was out of line with the cost of production via that technology. This fact was admitted by the Ministry of Economy and even the former Prime Minister's website. In addition, the support for old hydro plants that were built many years ago was attacked as illegal or incompatible with the rules, since the law precludes providing operating support for projects already fully depreciated.  Much of the law is set out in earlier posts on this blog. Taking the incontrovertible facts about co-firing and old hydro, it appears that co-firing might get a 50% retroactive*  reduction (maybe more?) of aid already provided in line with the adjust...

The European Commission's Directorate General for Competition is about to announce a decision on the Polish Green Certificate matter, SA.37224 (2013/CP). The complaint to the Commission alleged that the certificates were state aid and had to be notified and approved as such under the European Treaty, Articles 107 and 108. This same viewpoint was internally expressed to the Minister of Economy in 2013 by the head of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection in Poland. The Commission has apparently told UOKiK that it contends that the certificates are state aid. [An obvious point since every certificate program since 2001 has been classified as state aid by the Commission]. See references in " Why Poland Urgently Needs a New Green Certificate Law," gramwzielone.com [PL]. [ English version] . The Commission has the authority to declare state aid unlawful and is required to do so if it is not notified. The failure to notify means that the certificates are null a...

Ninety-nine percent of the Polish Government has been lying to us or is so uninformed that they do not know the difference. Poland's state support of renewable energy from 2005 to date (old law and new law) are state aid under the European Treaty. No doubts and no qualifications. The only Polish leader who was honest and professional in their opinion on this was Malgorzata Krasnodebska-Tomkiel, head of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), for several years.[1] Before the Prime Minister fired her and replaced her with an English teacher, she also was clear that elements of the new law were also state aid. Tomkiel was fired on a Monday that followed the Friday on which the Prime Minister's office received notice of the complaint about the green certificate system from the Commission. This does not mean that the aid under the old law or new law is wrong,, only that it has to be reviewed for consistency with state aid rules designed to minimize the distort...