The EU Commission has included industry sector 25.61 "Surface finishing and heat treatment" in the annex to the new EU state aid guidelines. This means that the sector is now eligible for energy aid.
On December 21, 2021, the European Commission approved the new guidelines for state aid for climate, environmental protection and energy. These will apply from the date of their formal adoption in January 2022. The existing system, which has been in force since 2014, has thus been amended. With the guidelines, the European Commission is therefore setting an updated framework for state aid in the form of support payments as well as benefits that can be granted to certain sectors by Member States. In Germany, for example, this concerns the reduction in stock transfers under the EEG.
Previously, the sector 25.61 "Surface treatment and heat treatment" was not explicitly mentioned in the guidelines as an endangered sector and therefore eligible for support. As a result, companies in this sector were not automatically included in existing reductions in the EEG surcharge, and only a few companies that met certain criteria were able to benefit from a reduction in the surcharge under the hardship clause.
This sets the framework for the entire industry in Germany to benefit from relief from the EEG levy in the coming years. The Zentralverband Oberflächentechnik e. V. (ZVO) will push for rapid implementation at national level in 2022 and support this closely. The association had campaigned for the inclusion of the industry in the EU state aid guideline with various measures.
With a view to the abolition of the EEG levy from 2023 as announced by the new German government - another demand that the ZVO has been making to politicians for many years - the inclusion of the sector in the EU state aid guidelines also ensures that sector-specific concessions or subsidies are also possible in the case of possible other or new levies on electricity consumption that are used to finance energy and environmental policy objectives.
