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EU: Almunia announces final agreement regarding the new German renewable energy act (EEG 2014)

Brussels - As Vice President Joaqu

Almunia said: "Last week, I organised an exchange of views with the German press. Why? Because I was astonished by the noises in the German media talking about big conflicts, disasters in this conversation, and when I compared these noises and concerns from Germany with the reality of my conversations with the Vice Chancellor, or the conversations of my cabinet and my services with their interlocutors, the situation was completely different. I anticipated last week that the problems were very, very small, detailed, technical and that solutions were close. And of course, a few days after the meeting with the Germans here in Brussels, my cabinet and my services have confirmed to me that no discrepancies existed anymore and that we have reached a definitive, final agreement on this. Last week we were very, very close to this final agreement, and now we have reached it, without strong difficulties by the way. It is not a simple question, of course, from a technical point of view. But we have started the procedures to respond with a positive decision to the notification of the new EEG sent to us by the German government. And we have even anticipated clear criteria for the decision that we will need to adopt in the near future regarding the past EEG 2012. As you will remember we opened an in-depth investigation regarding the past in December last year. I think that clearly before the end of this Commission we will come up with a decision regarding the past also."

On the technical details, the Vice President said: "On autogenerators using new fossil fuel based Combined Heat and Power plants, on these installations or facilities, built by some companies that prefer to have their own power plant and not to buy power / electricity from the grid, there was a treatment giving them exemptions even though their electricity is generated from fossils and not through renewables. In this case we have been discussing what kind of treatment we can consider compatible with our rules, with our guidelines. We have reached an agreement that until 2017 the payment of payment of the EEG-surcharge can be 40% - but before this date (so from now until 2017) we have asked the German authorities to notify a different system to give a permanent, more stable treatment to these plants. We agreed on this deadline until 2017. Now, the German authorities, the Vice Chancellor told me yesterday that maybe they will try to notify to us well before 2017



Source: IWR Online, 09 Jul 2014

 


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