Summary of Commission Decision

of 10 September 2021

establishing the specific measures to correct the anti-competitive effects of the infringement identified in the Commission Decision of 5 March 2008 on the granting or maintaining in force by the Hellenic Republic of rights in favour of Public Power Corporation S.A. for extraction of lignite (Infringement Procedure Nr. 2003/4428)

(Case AT.38700 – Greek lignite and electricity markets)

(notified under document C(2021)6595 final)

(Only the English text is authentic)

(2022/C 75/02)

On 10 September 2021, the Commission adopted a decision relating to a proceeding under Article 106(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The Commission herewith publishes the main content of the decision.

(1) By Decision of 5 March 2008, the Commission found that the Hellenic Republic had infringed Article 106(1) in conjunction with Article 102 TFEU, to the extent that it granted and maintained privileged rights to Public Power Corporation (‘PPC’) for the exploitation of lignite in Greece, thereby creating inequality of opportunity between economic operators as regards access to lignite for production of electricity, and enabling PPC to maintain its dominant position on the Greek wholesale electricity market by excluding or hindering market entry by newcomers (the ‘2008 Decision’).

(2) By Decision of 4 August 2009, the Commission made binding a number of measures proposed by the Hellenic Republic with a view to ensure access by competitors of PPC to lignite-fired generation on the Greek electricity market (the ‘2009 Decision’).

(3) By judgments of 15 December 2016, the General Court upheld 2008 and 2009 Decisions. In its judgments, the General Court confirmed the existence of inequality of opportunity that PPC’s quasi-exclusive rights for the exploitation of lignite created against its competitors.

(4) By Decision of 17 April 2018, the Commission made binding a new set of remedies proposed by the Hellenic Republic encompassing access of third parties to lignite-fired electricity generation through the divestment of two existing PPC lignite-fired plants (the ‘2018 Decision’).

(5) The measures accepted by the Commission in the 2009 and 2018 Decisions have not been implemented by the Hellenic Republic.

(6) On 1 February 2021, the Hellenic Republic proposed to the Commission a new set of remedies aimed at replacing the measures made binding by the 2018 Decision. The new proposal took into account the plan of the Hellenic Republic to decommission all existing lignite-fired plants by 2023, and envisaged competitors’ access to PPC’s generation capacity through forward products (i.e. electricity volumes sold several months ahead of their actual delivery). The Commission launched market consultations on the proposed measures on 2 February 2021 and on 5 July 2021. The Hellenic Republic submitted the final version of the remedies on 1 September 2021.

(7) Under the remedies made binding by the present Decision, the Hellenic Republic commits to ensure that PPC achieves a net seller’s position on the Greek forward market by way of selling between 40-50 % of its lignite-fired output on the Hellenic Energy Exchange and/or the European Energy Exchange. By allowing competitors to have access to wholesale electricity at stable prices on a longer-term basis and by bringing liquidity to the Greek forward market, the remedies will increase competition in the Greek electricity markets to the benefit of consumers.