Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2675 actions· ✨ 90 recent

The European Commission approved Germany's €3.8 billion industrial electricity price relief scheme (Industriestrompreis, State Aid Case SA.120495) on 16 April 2026 under Section 5 of the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), covering the period 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028. The scheme compensates companies in 91 electricity- and trade-intensive sectors for electricity costs above a reference wholesale price floor, subject to a binding conditionality requiring reinvestment of at least 50% of aid in decarbonisation assets within 48 months. The Commission approved the German scheme as part of a coordinated three-Member-State decision also covering parallel Bulgarian and Slovenian electricity price relief schemes, with the combined package totalling approximately €4.22 billion. This is the largest individual CISAF disbursement approved to date, at 11.4× the scale of the parallel Bulgaria SA.120414 scheme (€334m), and establishes the Section-5 upper-bound precedent for EU energy-intensive-industry relief.

The European Commission approved Slovenia's €90 million industrial electricity price relief scheme (State Aid Case SA.120965) on 16 April 2026 under Section 5 of the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), covering the period 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028. The scheme compensates Slovenian energy-intensive companies for electricity costs above a reference wholesale price floor of €50/MWh, with payouts made twice yearly based on expected consumption, subject to a requirement that at least 50% of aid received be reinvested in decarbonisation or energy-efficiency assets. The approval was issued as part of a coordinated three-Member-State Commission decision (IP/26/815) covering parallel schemes in Bulgaria (SA.120414, €334m) and Germany (SA.120495, €3.8bn), with total package value of approximately €4.22 billion.

The European Commission approved Bulgaria's Electricity Price Relief Scheme (State Aid Case SA.120414) under the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), authorising €334 million for energy-intensive industries over a three-year corridor from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. Aid is delivered via a reduction on beneficiaries' monthly electricity bills through their suppliers, subject to a minimum price floor of €50/MWh. This is the first EU member-state scheme approved under the CISAF framework, establishing the precedential template for subsequent CISAF approvals across the EU industrial base.

The European Commission approved on 15 December 2025 a EUR 408 million Spanish state aid scheme (SA.119880) under the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), funded by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), to support decarbonisation of manufacturing industry. The scheme funds direct grants — capped at EUR 200 million per company or project — for investments in electrification, switching to renewable or low-carbon hydrogen, waste heat recovery, and carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS) across a wide range of sectors including chemicals, ceramics, paper and metallurgy. Aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to enterprises of all sizes, inside and outside the EU Emissions Trading System, and cannot finance increases in production capacity; Spain expects the scheme to deliver annual emissions savings of around 1.6 megatonnes of CO2, with beneficiary projects required to become operational within 60 months of the aid grant.

Iberdrola Clientes' Project NOON — a 120 MW electrolysis renewable-hydrogen plant in Spain targeting 161,000 tonnes of RFNBO hydrogen production over its first 10 years — was awarded a EUR 135.5 million (USD 140.9 million) grant under the European Commission's Innovation Fund second domestic hydrogen auction (IF24). Iberdrola announced the award on 2 December 2025; the formal Grant Agreement with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) was signed on 20 January 2026 as part of a batch of six IF24 projects (Spain, Finland, Norway) completing grant preparation. NOON is one of the eight Spain-based projects selected in the IF24 main lot.

On 23 September 2025 the European Commission approved, under EU State aid rules (case SA.120081), a EUR 100 million budget increase to Portugal's scheme compensating energy-intensive companies for indirect emission costs — the higher electricity prices passed through from carbon costs under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The increase raises the scheme's total budget to EUR 275 million and was notified to avoid a significant reduction in per-company compensation levels for costs incurred during 2021-2030 (final payments due 2031). The Commission found the amended scheme continues to satisfy the ETS State aid Guidelines, which exist to prevent carbon leakage — energy-intensive firms relocating production outside the EU to jurisdictions with less ambitious climate policy.

The European Commission's Innovation Fund, administered by CINEA, signed a grant agreement (GTA-recorded at EUR 49.6 million / USD 58.2 million; independent coverage rounds to EUR ~50 million) with Green Dot Advanced Recycling GmbH for "LARS" — the first European large-scale integrated pre-treatment and chemical-recycling plant converting mixed plastic waste into pyrolysis oil as an alternative to fossil-based feedstock, to be built in Germany. LARS was one of six projects invited off the Innovation Fund 2023 general-call (IF23Call) reserve list to sign grant agreements — worth nearly EUR 319 million combined — after eight originally-selected projects withdrew from the March 2025 signing round. The plant targets entry into operation by 30 September 2028 and is expected to avoid an estimated 1.75 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions over its first ten years.

Iberdrola Clientes' GRHENA project — a green industrial-heat generation hub at the Chemical Industrial Park of Tarragona, Spain, designed to produce up to 648 GWh/year of steam via electric boilers powered by renewable electricity — was awarded a EUR 53,938,146 (~USD 63.5 million) grant under the European Commission's Innovation Fund. The Grant Agreement was signed on 22 July 2025 as part of a batch of six Innovation Fund 2023 general-call projects (worth EUR 319 million combined) that collectively target 24.1 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent avoided over their first ten years of operation. GRHENA is described as the first large-scale demonstrator of direct industrial electrification of heat generation, replacing natural gas at the Tarragona chemical complex.

The European Commission on 20 May 2025 published the results of the second EU Hydrogen Bank auction (IF24), selecting 15 renewable hydrogen production projects across five European Economic Area countries to share approximately €992 million in Innovation Fund grants. Winning projects span transport, chemicals, methanol, and ammonia end-uses; three projects were selected under a dedicated maritime-fuels lot. Spain, Lithuania, and Austria committed over €700 million in additional national co-funding via the Auctions-as-a-Service mechanism, bringing total public support above €1.69 billion and marking the first large-scale EEA co-funded hydrogen auction.