On 9 April 2014, the European Commission adopted the new Environmental and Energy State Aid Guidelines (EEAG) for the period up to 2020. The guidelines promote a gradual move to market-based support for renewable energy in order to address the market distortions related to subsidies granted to renewable energy sources (RES).

Furthermore, the EEAG allow reducing the burden of RES charges for a list of energy-intensive sectors identified on the basis of their trade and electro intensity. These provisions are essential for the competitiveness of the industry as RES charges represent an increasing proportion of the energy bill.The list of eligible sectors includes the following ceramic sub-sectors: wall & floor tiles, bricks & roof tiles, refractories, sanitaryware, clay pipes and ceramic insulators. Highly electro-intensive companies from other sectors can also be eligible if their electro-intensity is above 20%. 

The full text of the new EEAG is available here.Cerame-Unie replied to the public consultation on the EEAG in February 2014.