The wind meets the legal services of the European Commission
on July 18, 2013
The legal services of the direction General of energy from the Commission European analyzed if the energy reform violates the directive of renewable energy or other community legal provisions. The wind Business Association (AEE),APPA wind and European of wind energy Association (EWEA) met on Monday with representatives of legal services to inform them about the legal details of the measures taken by the Government this year on wind energy.
The associations put the accent on three aspects: the retroactivity of the measures, discrimination to the wind and the arbitrariness with which the criterion of reasonable profit set. After the meeting held by the three associations in June with the European Commissioner for energy, Günther Oettinger, this expressed concern for the lack of dialogue with the Government and by the impact on the sector of the regulatory measures and its retroactivity, but then even the content of the energy reform, was not known but the the Royal Decree Law-2/2013. The Commissioner urged the sector to send you data on the economic impact of these measures and said that their mission is to ensure compliance with the European directives, including renewable energy.
The meeting on Monday was a continuation of the one held with Oettinger, and the three associations had occasion to explain not only the impact of the tax of 7% on electricity generation and Royal Decree-Law 2/2013 applied with retroactive effect - which have resulted in the loss of 25 jobs farms a day and the closure of nine factories, In addition to a loss of income of 255 million for the sector just in the first half, but also the normative development of the energy reform known last Friday.
Retroactivity of the measures, the discrimination to the wind and the arbitrariness with which the criterion of reasonable profit, set main topics of the meeting.
The wind Business Association considers that the Government has treated the wind energy sector, which is not guilty of the tariff deficit and always has been developed according to the goals in a very unfair way. Approved measures violate the principles of legal certainty by clearly being retroactive, because they change the conditions of the investments made by the industry for more than twenty years. They also violate the principle of reasonable profit, does not comply with the principles of reasonable profitability of the CNE and fixing it with arbitrary criteria.
Also, measures radically alter flows of income from all the wind farms in Spain, which will mean a cascade of financial problems for the sector and, eventually, for banking. At the same time, it has a strong impact on the value of the companies, as it has been in its evolution in the bag since the Council of Ministers approved the reform last Friday.
