Yesterday, 30 July, the European Commission (EC) spproved changes to Czech, French, Dutch and Slovak state aid schemes aimed at compensating energy-intensive companies for higher electricity prices under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), in line with EU state aid rules.

The Commission clarified that the authorised changes to state aid schemes aim to reduce the risk of energy-intensive companies relocating to countries outside the Union with less ambitious climate policies. The relocation of these companies outside the EU would lead to an increase in global greenhouse gas emissions.

The governments of the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands and Slovakia are introducing changes that, according to the EC's analysis, were made possible by the amended guidelines on state aid under the ETS. These guidelines were adopted by the EC in December 2025.

The scope of the Czech, French and Dutch measures is extended to other sectors. Slovakia's state aid scheme will be amended to exclude oil and gas companies that were previously included in it.

For Czechia, the Netherlands and Slovakia, the maximum aid intensity that can be granted to sectors covered by the original schemes is increased from 75% to 80%.

Finally, the Netherlands and Slovakia will increase the overall budgets of their respective schemes: from €834.6 million to €3.7 billion for the Netherlands and from € 250 million to € 710 million for Slovakia.

The Commission pointed out that all schemes were assessed under EU State aid rules, in particular under the ETS State Aid Guidelines. On the basis of its review, the EC found that these State aid schemes are necessary and appropriate to support energy-intensive companies to cope with higher electricity prices and avoid the relocation of businesses, are limited to the minimum necessary and will have a limited impact on competition and trade in the EU.

In this context, we addressed Miroslav Kiraľvarga, Vice President for External Relations, Management and Business Development and also the President of the Slovak Employers' Federation, who has long been involved in the issue of the ETS system and assistance for energy-intensive industry.

"I consider this to be the result of many years of efforts to compensate Slovak industry to a comparable extent to our competitors from other EU countries. The use of this state aid scheme will now depend on the implementation in Slovak conditions. We believe that the creation of the framework will be followed by the use of this possibility in the coming years by allocating sufficient financial resources," said Miroslav Kiraľvarga.

The cover image was created by artificial intelligence - ChatGPT.