Judgment of the EU Court of the Justice in the Åland Vindkraft Case (C-573/12): the Court of Justice backs the restrictive nature of national support schemes for renewables, based on environmental protection

The Court of Justice of the European Union has delivered on 1 July 2014 its decision in the Åland Vindkraft Case (C-573/12). The Court rules in favour of Sweden, and deems the Swedish national support scheme, a green certificates scheme, conform to EU law, although it constitutes a measure having equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction. Because the measure aims to promote renewable energy sources and act on greenhouse gases emissions that the EU and its Member States are internationally committed to reduce, the Court confirms that Member States can maintain territorial restrictions to access their national support schemes as long as the measure is proportional.

 

For a background of the case, see previous post here (Eligibility of Foreign Produced Renewable Electricity to National Support Scheme: Advocate General Deems a Provision of the Renewables Directive Invalid (Preliminary Ruling))

 

The full text of judgement is available on Curia here.

 

Reference: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 1 July 2014 in Case C-573/12, Ålands Vindkraft AB v Energimyndigheten