Brussels pitches state subsidy bonanza to combat Iran war energy shock | Euractiv The draft EU plan “goes much further than the current state aid rules”, said one expert

and here the Euractiv article: www.euractiv.com/news/brussel... @nkurmayer.bsky.social

Cautionary tale or model for Europe? How member states should react to Germany’s new electricit The EU’s updated state-aid rules now permit direct industrial electricity subsidies (IESs), allowing Germany to introduce its planned ‘Industriestrompreis’. This policy brief presents new data on subs...

If you're interested in the the interaction and scope of the two subsidy types, I discuss them in my policy brief here: www.delorscentre.eu/en/publicati... . (3/3)

The proposal isn't public, but EURACTIV has seen it. If COM adopts this and the German govt implements it, then it's a massive win for German energy-intensive industry, which so far basically only benefitted from the indirect emission cost (which is more generous than the Industriestrompreis). (2/3)

Wow - beyond the change discussed in the first thread, it seems like the Commission is proposing a major change for subsidising electricity for industry: indirect emission cost (Strompreiskompensation) & CISAF electricity price relief (Industriestrompreis) could be used jointly for up to 50%! (1/3)

Commission consults Member States on proposal for a Temporary Crisis Framework The European Commission is gathering the views of Member States on a draft proposal for a State aid Temporary Crisis Framework to support the EU economy in the context of the Middle East crisis, as an

and here the press release by COM on the proposed changes: ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Cautionary tale or model for Europe? How member states should react to Germany’s new electricit The EU’s updated state-aid rules now permit direct industrial electricity subsidies (IESs), allowing Germany to introduce its planned ‘Industriestrompreis’. This policy brief presents new data on subs...

But as argued in my policy brief: the Industriestrompreis is far from optimal - subsidies can be spent more wisely, and other member states shouldn't emulate the German scheme. (5/5)
www.delorscentre.eu/en/publicati...

What does it mean for Germany? The DE "Industriestrompreis" subsidy is on the finish line to be implemented. But with the proposed change, the DE govt could probably make it somewhat more generous, as they have been wanting to. But DE will have to weigh that against the risk of another delay. (4/5)

How much of an additional alleviation would that be? If the other two conditions (yellow and blue above) are not softened - then perhaps not that much, unless prices really go into extreme territory.

(3/5)

Under state aid rules in place since last summer ("CISAF"), lowering electricity prices for industry has 3 main caveats - in color below.

➡️Now, Com now wants to soften these criteria, and increase the aid intensity from the currently 50% - which I take to be the criterion in green.
(2/5)

Subsidies on full throttle?
The EU Commission is about to change state aid rules yet again, given the energy crisis. One interesting component: electricity prices for energy-intensive industries can be subsidised even more.

This impacts subsidies like Germany's "Industriestrompreis": (1/5)

EU to go – Made in Europe: Rettungsanker für die Industrie? Ein Blog über die Demokratie in Europa

Europas Industrie steht unter Druck. Hohe Energiepreise und ein fragmentierter Welthandel setzen Branchen wie Automobil, Chemie, Stahl und Maschinenbau zu. Bringt der von der EU‑Kommission vorgeschlagene Industrial Accelerator Act Lösungen?

#EUtogo -Podcast mit THU NGUYEN und PHILIPP JÄGER

Marlene's new paper explains expertly how the proposed Scale-Up fund can help address two major challenges: investments in European scale-ups need to be larger than what the current private Venture Capital funds can offer - and they need to go into high-risk, high-reward, high-spillover businesses.

Wer sich für Buy European interessiert und wissen möchte, was der Industrial Accelerator Act für die Industrie leisten kann --> Erklärungen & Einschätzungen in der neuen Podcast-Folge👇

& stay tuned - bald kommt auch ein JDC Policy Brief zum Thema

From my point of view, the scoop by @dpa is real and consequential: It shows that the EPP does not only vote together with the far-right (which everyone in Brussels knows now) but is actively coordinating with them.

This included physical meetings and online coordination with ECR, PfE and ESN.

After months of wrangling and an epic list of delays, the Commission has finally released its Industrial Accelerator Act.

This could turn into one of the EU’s most consequential industrial policy files in years - and the proposal is honestly not a bad place to start.

Some quick thoughts:

Can anything halt the decline of German industry? Europe’s manufacturing champion is in free fall. Economists are suggesting radical steps to save what is left

for last two charts, c.f. FT-article from last November: www.ft.com/content/239e...

Taking a wider look, beyond energy-intensive manufacturing, to industrial production as a whole: again, Germany's relative performance is not looking great in EU comparison
Part of the recent worries are the falling exports and rising imports of capital goods with China.
(3/3)

Second, there's striking heterogeneity across countries. Germany is really the problem child here for many products - only on steel it's starting to look better again for Germany (2/3).

The Industrial Accelerator Act, aimed to boost energy-intensive industries and clean tech, faces another delay. Meanwhile, energy-intensive industry continues to struggle.

I looked into the data. First, overall poor performance espc. for the chemical industry - although a small recent uptick (1/3)

Europe is chasing the wrong fix for its growth crisis The continent’s old growth model no longer works in today’s world. And EU leaders need a plan that matches the scale of this shift.

Tomorrow’s summit is a chance for EU leaders to stop chasing the wrong fixes — and finally sketch a response that matches the scale of Europe’s economic challenge.

Here, lucasguttenberg.bsky.social, @sandertordoir.bsky.social and I lay out what that could look like.

www.politico.eu/article/euro...

Here the annex with the factors and how they are defined (weighted average of the CO2 intensity of electricity produced from fossil fuels) (4/4)

eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-conten...

If anyone knows which data series and exact calculation the Commission used - do tell.

Politically, there will be high-level fights over ETS1 this year. But besides them, the climate bubble shouldn't leave the important but more obscure, technical factors like these to the lobbyist (3/4)

This "indirect emission cost" subsidy costs many billions each year, and depends heavily on the "emission intensity factor". The higher this factor for a country, the higher the maximum subsidy.

No matter what Eurostat acrobatics I try - and I have tried a bunch - I get much lower numbers. (2/4)

Beware of ‘anti-woke’ liberals: they attacked the left and helped Trump win | Jan-Werner Müller So-called ‘reactionary centrist’ pundits proclaimed that there was a global ‘vibe shift’ in favor of the right. They were wrong

"The point is not that what progressives do must never be criticized; the point is that the relentless drive to find fault with both sides equally results in a sense of (false) equivalence among those taking cues from supposedly trustworthy centrists."

Thank you to @elisabettaco.bsky.social, Alexandr Hobza, @tpellerincarlin.bsky.social & @ph-jaeg.bsky.social for speaking at @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social/ @bst-europe.bsky.social/ @delorsberlin.bsky.social event on 'Shaping the right policies for Europe's clean tech industry' in Brussels yesterday.

You may have missed it amidst the chaos of the last few days, but there is a new high-level EU report in town: A Franco-German task force led by Jörg Kukies and Christian Noyer presented recommendations to tackle the scale-up financing gap.

Here is what it says and why you should care about it.

Europe is hollowing out its Green Deal, leaving a vacuum of political

End of year reflections on EU climate policy: it’s really not looking good for the Green Deal.
@jannikjansen.bsky.social and I wrote a short piece on why we're far from "staying the course" - and why that's a strategic mistake for Europe (1/12)
tinyurl.com/jdc-green-deal

Excellent thoughts and notes, but recall that in 2025 there is not really such a thing as a “center” in EU politics — here we are really talking about the political right rowing back on climate ambition due to fear of being eaten by the far rights.

*"continent on the planet", of course

In 2026, the political centre should again own the Green Deal and embrace it as a core strategic project. Abandoning it would leave Europe weaker economically, socially, and geopolitically, while creating a vacuum of political vision that others are ready to fill. (end)