Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) signed a 9-year, EUR 27.5 million (DKK 205 million) loan with Denmark's BioCirc Group on 8 July 2025 to co-finance carbon-capture infrastructure at five of the company's eight biogas plants. The financing, backed by the InvestEU programme, funds equipment to clean and liquefy captured CO2 for transport to Project Greensand, a Danish-led consortium storing CO2 permanently under the North Sea. It is NIB's first InvestEU-backed loan in Denmark and its first project-financed loan for carbon capture and storage technology, with the financed capacity expected to remove at least 130,000 tonnes of CO2 annually once operational in 2026.

Portugal's Council of Ministers adopted Resolution n.º 49/2024 on 26 March 2024, establishing the Sistema de Incentivos ao Investimento em Setores Estratégicos (Strategic Sectors Investment Incentive System) — a dedicated state-aid window anchored to the EU Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF, Commission Communication C(2023)1711) and routed through Portugal's Regime Contratual de Investimento (RCI, Decree-Law 191/2014). The scheme covers green-transition equipment manufacturing (batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolysers, CCUS) and upstream critical raw materials (lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper, rare earths, graphite, anode/cathode precursor chemistries), offering cumulative grant equivalents up to 35% of eligible investment for large enterprises and 45–55% for SMEs, Cohesion-Region operations, or strategic-priority categories. A hard 31 December 2025 approval-decision sunset tied to TCTF expiry drove a Q3–Q4 2025 project-decision rush. The scheme served as the primary domestic state-aid instrument underpinning Portugal's four EU CRMA-designated strategic projects (Savannah Barroso lithium, Lusorecursos Aguas Frias lithium, Lifthium Estarreja LiCO3/LiOH refinery, Bondalti Estarreja lithium-derivatives integration).

Slovakia's Národná rada adopted Act No. 31/2024 Z.z. on 13 February 2024, amending Act No. 57/2018 Z.z. on Regional Investment Aid by inserting two new sections — §28a (Mimoriadna investičná pomoc / Exceptional Investment Aid) and §28b (Exceptional Investment Aid in sectors strategic for the transition to a climate-neutral economy) — creating the national legal base for disbursing the EC-approved €1 billion Slovak TCTF net-zero state-aid envelope (EC decision 15 December 2023, SA case approved under the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework). The scheme supports manufacturers of batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolysers, CCUS equipment, key components thereof, and related critical raw materials, with aid ceilings of €350 million per project in general districts and €150 million in Bratislava region, at aid intensities of 15–60% depending on company size and geography. Act 31/2024 is the horizontal enabling statute underpinning all large-scale Slovak net-zero state-aid awards flowing from the TCTF/NZIA envelopes — including future battery gigafactory, electrolyser, and clean-tech plant grants in the 2024–2025 window.

The European Commission approved a Hungarian horizontal state-aid framework scheme of approximately EUR 2.36 billion (HUF 920 billion equivalent) under Section 2.8 of the EU Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF, adopted 9 March 2023) to support accelerated investments in strategic net-zero sectors: batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolysers, CCS equipment, key components for each, and the production or recovery of related critical raw materials. Aid is provided in the form of direct grants, tax advantages, and refundable advances; all aid must be granted before 31 December 2025. The scheme is the principal state-aid architecture through which Hungary has channelled Chinese and Korean battery/EV-supply- chain FDI into its emerging Debrecen–Szeged–Göd-Nyíregyháza industrial cluster, and is the parent umbrella under which individual large-scale aid decisions for CATL Debrecen, BYD Szeged, EVE Power Debrecen, Samsung SDI Göd, Sunwoda Nyíregyháza, and EcoPro BM have been or will be assessed.