Mott's Blog

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...

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) continues the view expressed by the previous Director that the tax exemptions in the draft RES law are state aid. The correspondence dated May 23, 2014 discussing Article 177 of the July 2014 version of the law clearly agrees with the earlier assessment that tax exemptions are state aid. This "is state aid within the meaning of Article 107 of the TFEU [Treaty for the Functioning of the European Union]." They also note that the GBER or block exemption rule that the Government is relying upon to avoid notification does not cover the tax exemptions. OCCP concluded in November 28, 2013: “In this context, I wish to point out that   the exemption from excise duty for RES energy   in the Directive on the taxation of energy is optional, and hence the establishment of this type of release is not an obligation of a Member State, but the only element implemented by environmental policies. Bearing in mind ...