With the support and on behalf of its members, EREF has initiated annulment proceedings
under Art. 263 TFEU specifically and exclusively against chapter 3.3.2. of the Guidelines for
Environmental and Energy Aid 2014-2020. The case has been assigned the case number T694/14 at the General Court of the European Union. EREF is represented by the German law
firm Becker Büttner Held (BBH).
Chapter 3.3.2. of the Guidelines for Environmental and Energy Aid 2014-2020 contains
provisions on the design of operating aid schemes for renewable electricity. It prescribes that
producers of renewable electricity should be selling their electricity on the market and should
be awarded market premiums, that the Member States should take care that no incentives
are granted for production at times of negative prices and that producers of renewable
electricity should be subjected to standard balancing obligations. Furthermore, except in
some limited circumstances, the aid may only be awarded as result of a competitive – in
principle technology-neutral – bidding procedure. Only small installations below 500 kW may
still be awarded Feed-in Tariffs and only installations below 1 MW may be exempted from the
bidding procedure.