2023-12-06 05:15:00
The large electro-intensive industry, with strong weight in Asturias, has been demanding greater direct aid from the Government for years to reduce the impact that high electricity prices have on its profitability and competitiveness against its European rivals. Large industrial groups benefit every year from a compensation system for part of the costs of indirect CO2 emissions, but the companies consider that in recent years the amounts allocated have been insufficient and now they demand to increase the amounts for next year .
The General State Budgets (PGE) for 2023 contemplated an allocation of 244 million euros for this aid, equaling the amount distributed the previous year. The Government intends to extend the PGE temporarily, at least for a few months, until new Budgets for 2024 can be approved now that the new legislature has begun. So initially the amount to compensate for indirect CO2 emissions will continue to be 244 million for the next year, pending new public accounts.
The Association of Large Energy Consumption Companies (AEGE), to which companies such as ArcelorMittal or Asturiana de Zinc (AZSA) belong, assures that this year they would have actually received aid of 450 million euros given the high prices of the rights. of CO2 emissions and within the budgetary margins that the EU imposes on this type of aid. And the employers’ association of the electro-intensive industries demands that the Ministry of Industry increase aid to 650 million in 2024, as confirmed by the general director of the association, Pedro González.
According to community regulation, these compensations can cover up to 75% of the indirect CO2 costs of electro-intensive companies and a maximum of 25% of each country’s income from emission rights auctions can be allocated to finance the program (this year Spain will raise around 3,500 million euros). AEGE considers that the current prices of emission rights (around 83 euros per ton on average, more than double that before the pandemic) and the forecast that they will continue to rise in the coming years (up to 90 euros) justify an upward review of Spanish aid.
The European Commission has just approved a review of the Spanish Government’s aid plan for an entire decade. The previous plan contemplated 2,900 million euros to offset part of the costs of indirect CO2 emissions between 2021 and 2030. In the new program, Brussels will allow Spain to allocate a maximum of 8,510 million between 2022 and 2031. With these new budget caps, and Given the rise in CO2 prices, the employers of the large electro-intensive industry see their claim to almost triple the amount of aid for next year justified.
“The numbers that were made for the previous aid plan were insufficient. They were not consistent with reality,” says Pedro González, who celebrates the raising of the limits on the amount of aid allowed by Brussels, but warns that in previous years The maximums allowed by the European Union have not even been reached and the aid distributed by the Government has always remained below, citing lack of budgetary availability.
“Once the aid path has been updated by the European Commission, AEGE trusts that the Government will agree to the effective update of the pending amounts for the current year, as well as those for future years, to avoid increasing the competitive gap faced by the industries, thus allowing the comparison with competitors from neighboring countries that are benefiting from the maximum allowed in aid,” said the electro-intensive employers’ association in a statement this week. In parallel, the business association asks the Executive to extend until 2024 other exceptional measures adopted to combat the effects of the energy crisis and which expire on December 31.
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