Klaus Ferdinand Gärditz, Claas Friedrich Germelmann

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 19 (2021), Issue 1, Page 105 - 108

Ulrich Ramsauer, Valentin Schatz, Wolfgang Kahl, Kurt Faßbender, Claas Friedrich Germelmann, Peter-Tobias Stoll

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 17 (2019), Issue 2, Page 277 - 286

Claas Friedrich Germelmann

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 17 (2019), Issue 2, Page 255 - 261

Financing the production of electricity from renewable energy sources has always been a politically controversial issue. Furthermore, it entails legal ramifications not only in internal law, but also on the EU level. As far as the German renewable energy surcharge is concerned, the European Commission has been requiring its conformity with EU state aid law since the German Renewables Act (EEG) 2012. However, in a recent judgment, the European Court of Justice has ruled that since the surcharge does not constitute a grant stemming from State resources within the meaning of Article 107 TFEU, state aid law does not apply. It therefore ends the Commission’s control over the German renewable energy support scheme, which seems questionable since the new Renewables Directive 2018/2001 cannot provide for an adequate alternative in order to preserve the market standards the support scheme has to follow in order to be efficient. The criticism applies even more in the case of future support mechanisms that may be designed in order to finance other tasks and instruments in the context of energy transition, for which secondary legislation does not exist at all.

Albert Ingold, Martin Kment, Wolfgang Kahl, Claas Friedrich Germelmann, Boas Kümper, Christoph Krönke

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 16 (2018), Issue 3, Page 382 - 390

Claas Friedrich Germelmann

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 12 (2014), Issue 4, Page 329 - 333

Support schemes for renewable energies in Europe are still largely governed by national law while primary and secondary EU law only set the framework rules. In this context, several EU member states are still upholding support schemes that are directly discriminatory against renewable energies which have been produced in other member states. Apart from raising state aid law problems that are currently under examination by the European Commission, this constitutes a barrier