BN 35/25 - Aligned Position - ETS State Aid Guideline
(EIGA Members' area)
The current “Guidelines on certain State aid measures in the context of the system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading post-2021” (2020/C 317/04) allow Member States to compensate companies in sectors exposed to a significant risk of carbon leakage for “indirect emission costs” resulting from the EU Emissions Trading System and passed on via higher electricity costs.
However, when the EU Commission adopted the Guidelines in 2020, the industrial gases sector (NACE code 20.11) was not considered eligible in its entirety. Instead, only two subsectors, namely hydrogen (NACE 20.11.11.50) and inorganic oxygen compounds of non-metals (NACE 20.11.12.90), were included in Annex I – thereby excluding the sector’s particularly electricity-intensive production of air gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, which account for a significant part of the industrial gases sector's activity.
This omission raises serious concerns and EIGA therefore advocates for the list of eligible sectors to be reviewed and expanded as part of the 2025 update of the guidelines, with the entire industrial gases sector (NACE 20.11) being classified as exposed to carbon leakage and thus eligible for aid, thereby also restoring the level playing field between insourced and outsourced production of air gases.
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