In the context of its "Green Deal Industrial Plan", which was presented on 1 February, the European Commission today approved the State aid "Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework" (TCTF). The new State aid rules aim to improve the framework for State aid for the green transition, especially by facilitating compliance with funding requirements for investments in the field of transformational technologies.

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck said: "The new State aid rules lay the foundations for more investments in green technologies in Europe. This is a very important step. Specifically, we can provide much more targeted funding for the production of batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps and electrolysers. We can thus accelerate the mitigation of climate change and strengthen the EU’s strategic and technological sovereignty. This means that competitiveness and climate action go hand in hand."

The TCTF facilitates the expansion of renewable energy, the decarbonisation of industrial production processes and investments in sectors which are crucial in strategic and technological terms for the transition to a zero-emission economy (e.g. the production of batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps and electrolysers, carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) / carbon capture and storage (CCS), and the related critical raw materials). Special incentives have been created for investments in transformational technologies in structurally weak regions. This generates genuine added value for Europe. In this area, it will be possible to grant State aid totalling up to comparable State aid in third countries. This is to prevent strategically important sectors from relocating their businesses from Germany and the EU to other countries. It is now possible to approve the respective measures until the end of 2025, while the measures may apply even longer.

As part of its Communication on a "Green Deal Industrial Plan" of 1 February, the European Commission had announced that the State aid rules will become more flexible. On 9 February, the Council of the European Union also called for simplified, faster and more predictable State aid procedures and more targeted, temporary and proportional funding in sectors which are strategically important for the green transition and on which subsidies in third countries or high energy prices have a negative impact.

In the TCTF approved today, the Commission has for the third time amended its State aid "Temporary Crisis Framework" (TCF), which was first presented in spring 2022 in view of the war in Ukraine, and has expanded it to include a chapter on the transition.

The TCTF is the State aid framework for the Member States’ future support measures. These measures are subject to approval by the Commission under State aid rules.