WRITTEN QUESTION E-1286/00

by Hiltrud Breyer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(19 April 2000)

Subject: Indirect aid to coal and nuclear sectors

The White Paper on renewable energies commits the Commission to taking action against subsidising of the coal and nuclear-energy sectors.

1. (a) How many complaints has the Commission received in the last two years relating to the coal and nuclear-energy sectors, with reference to possible aid?

(b) What did the Commission decide in each case?

(c) In which countries did the complaints originate and what electricity undertakings were concerned in each case?

(d) How many complaints are now being investigated by the Commission in this connection and in which countries do those complaints originate?

(e) What is the substance of each complaint?

2. (a) How does the Commission identify indirect, unnotified aid to coal and nuclear energy in the Member States?

(b) Has the Commission developed a systematic approach to detecting indirect aid to this sector?

(c) If so, is that approach effective in preventing possible competitive advantages from accruing to particular supply undertakings?

(d) Is it, for example, suitable for preventing nuclear-sector reserves from being used for internal financing and/or to purchase other undertakings? If not, will the Commission make it so?

(e) How soon?

3. (a) Does the Commission agree that a Commission database for the targeted monitoring of the market in the electricity sector is necessary on a European scale?

(b) If not, why not?

(c) If so, what action will the Commission take to establish such a database?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(16 June 2000)

1. The Commission has received fifteen complaints and eight appeals against Commission decisions that have been lodged with the Court of Justice's Court of First Instance concerning the subsidies granted to the coal industry since 1997. Moreover, two anti-dumping complaints concerning imports of coal and coke have been lodged with the Commission.

The Commission dealt with the complaints laid before it in accordance with the principles of Community law. It took Decision1999/184/ECSC of 29 July 1998 on aid granted by Germany to the companies Sophia Jacoba GmbH and Preussag Anthrazit GmbH for 1996 and 1997(1). That decision responded to four complaints. Two other complaints were put on file. The Commission has served notice on the German Government to supply the information concerning the possibility that state support might have been granted as part of the RAG AG/Saarbergwerke AG(2) merger operations. The other complaints are being processed via the procedures intended for such cases.

The complaints have mainly been made by coal producers in the United Kingdom, but also by French, Italian and Spanish undertakings. One of the appeals to the Court of Justice was made by an electricity generator. The precise aim of the complaints concerns possible distortions of competition resulting from discrimination and granting assistance to the coal industry.

Only one complaint concerning nuclear power has been introduced recently. That complaint, concerning the sums set aside by nuclear undertakings for their future decommissioning costs is currently being investigated by the Commission in accordance with Community law.

2. Commission decision No 3632/93/ECSC of 28 December 1993 establishing Community rules for state aid to the coal industry is based on principles of transparency and must be given credit for eliminating any system of indirect aid for coal(3).go 27 The Commission has a system for monitoring production costs and service prices of the various coal producers and, if necessary, of the production units of various companies. The Commission also analyses the management reports of the coal undertakings and takes steps to ensure that the Member States do not fail to meet the obligations applying to them under the ECSC Treaty. That method has proved to be effective and the Commission intervenes where necessary.

The provisions of the Euratom Treaty, as provided for by Article 305 (former Article 232) paragraph 2 of the EC Treaty apply to the nuclear industry. There is thus no systematic method of identifying state assistance to the nuclear industry. In general terms the Commission, however, monitors the electricity market via the instruments made available to it by the directives on the internal market. The implementation of Community law, and in particular the EC Treaty, gives the Commission scope for examining any instance brought to its attention of distortions of competition in electricity generation.

3. Setting up a data base encounters major difficulties in terms of the cost of creating and updating on the basis of the information from companies as regards their supplies, and which is likely to have an impact on the competition among them.

Conversely, the Commission has available to it instruments enabling it to maintain an awareness of movements in the various parts of the internal market and in particular the electricity industry. Moreover, in order to improve transparency, the Commission publishes its decisions concerning state aid on the Internet and in the Official Journal.

The Commission publishes regular reports on the harmonisation requirements of the internal market for electricity.

(1) OJ L 60, 9.3.1999.

(2) State aid 2000/C101/03, OJ C 101, 8.4.2000.

(3) OJ L 329, 30.12.1993.