Judgment published in Essent Belgium NV C-204/12 to C-208/12: green certificates, guarantees of origin and free movement of goods (Court of Justice of the EU)

"La boucle est bouclée" one can say, at least for the moment.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has delivered on 11 September 2014 its judgment in the joined Cases C-204/12 to C-208/12 involving Essent Belgium NV.



The case is a reference for preliminary ruling from a Belgium first instance Court to the Court of Justice. It involves questions on the free movement of goods (electricity), the existence of barriers to that free movement due to territorial restrictions (only regional generation qualifies to support), and interaction between green certificates and guarantees of origin under that support scheme.

A more detailed analysis of the judgment will be published on that blog later, but it can already be mentionned that, without any surprise, the Court follows its recent decision in the Åland Vindkraft case (see previous post here and analysis here), and justifies the restrictions to the free movement of goods contained in the Flemish green certificates scheme (non-eligibility of foreign-produced certificates or guarantees of origin for the purpose of compliace), based on the provisions of the Renewable Energy Sources Directive 2001/77/EC (now repealed, but the provisions are repeated and extended  in Directive 2009/28/EC).

The Court reiterates the distinctions between green certificates and guarantees of origin. It deems the Flemish support scheme based on green certificates conform with the Directive, even though it involves some restrictions on the free movement of goods. Those restrictions are justified on Public interest grounds related to the support of renewable energy sources and the reduction of greenhouse gases emission through climate change policy. Interestingly, the Court looks one again at the details of the Flemish scheme, and sets some conditions to that compatibility, according to scheme design.


References (with links):
- Text of the judgment: Joined Cases C-204/12 to C-208/12, Essent Belgium NV, 11. september 2014
- Press release: "The Flemish green energy certificate scheme is compatible with EU law", Court of Justice of the European Union, No 125/14, 11 September 2014

Litterature:

Catherine Banet, Tradable Green Certificates Schemes under EU Law - The Influence of EU Law on national support schemes for renewable electricity generation (UniPub, Oslo, 2012), 365 p.

An updated version of this book will be published in 2014 at Kluwer.