Joaquín Almunia, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Competition, gave a press conference on several decisions on State aids, adopted on the same day by the EC. He notably announced the launch of a public consultation on a proposal for revised State aid rules for environmental protection and energy.
Joaquín Almunia was seeking the views of Member States and stakeholders on the draft the EC had prepared, with a view to adopting new guidelines in the first half of 2014. This new guidelines were an important part of the State Aid Modernisation reform, and would lead to the adoption of an EU-wide framework for state aid in these two areas for the 2014-2020 period.
The existing rules on state aid for environmental protection would be thoroughly updated and their scope would be extended. For the first time, EU state aid guidelines would cover state aid in the energy sector in general and not only environmental aid.
These new guidelines aimed to contribute to the achievement of the EU's 2020 objectives.