As a continuation of the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU of 30 May 2013 in case C-677/11 Doux Élevages and Coopérative agricole UKL-AREE, where the CJEU (re)analysed the concept of 'State aid' and stressed that aid cannot
exist if the economic advantage under analysis is not funded by 'State
resources' and there is no 'imputability to the State' (commented here); in his Opinion of 11 July 2013 in case C-262/12 Vent De Colère and Others, Advocate General Jääskinen has assessed a French scheme of support to electric distribution companies and revisited the well-known PreussenElektra criteria.
In his analysis, AG Jääskinen uses the two main criteria of 'imputability' and existence of 'State resources' in order to determine whether some contributions paid by final customers of electricity--which are then used to compensate for the costs of the mandatory purchase of wind energy by electricity distributors at above the market prices--amount to State aid.
Very briefly, under the controverted scheme, producers of wind energy benefit from an obligation of mandatory purchase of their electricity by energy distributors at prices above the market. Distribution companies can then claim full compensation for those additional costs (which are classed as costs derived from public service obligations) from CDC (Caisse des Dépôts group, which is a "public group serving general interest and economic development"). CDC's compensation is ultimately financed by the final consumers of electricity, who pay that compensation as part of their electricity bill.
According to AG Jääskinen, the scheme constitutes State aid because there is both State imputability and the measure is financed by State resources. As to the first element, the AG considers that the fact the contribution to be paid by consumers is directly determined in a law implies that the adoption of such a measure is imputable to the public powers of the French State (para 32 of hi Opinion).
It is interesting to stress that the AG distinguishes this case from the very recent Doux Elevages Judgment by stressing that the intervention of the State in this case was not of a 'merely instrumental' nature, but that the French State took full ownership of the compensation scheme for producers of wind electricity (para 40).
As to the more controversial issue of the consumer contributions amounting to the existence of 'State resources', the AG stresses that 'the fact that these resources constantly remain under public control and, therefore, are available to the competent national authorities, suffices to qualify them as State funds to finance the measure, which then falls within the scope of Article 107(1) TFEU' (para 34, own translation from Spanish). AG Jääskinen confirms this positive finding in view of the control that the French State exercises over CDC, the status of CDC as the organism that intervenes in the transmission of the funds between consumers and distributors of energy, and the nature of the controverted funds.
In my view, it is worth noting that AG Jääskinen advocates for a rather streamlined test of 'origin/absorption' of private funds once they are managed by a public entity by clearly submitting that he does 'not agree with the general statement that the public nature of an organism does not entail that the resources available to it are to be regarded as State funds' (para 46, own translation from Spanish). I think that this is an appropriate approach that would overcome a formalistic assessment of the avenues that financial support follows and, in the end, would broaden the definition of State aid under a more functional approach.
Also, and once more, AG Jääskinen distinguishes this case from the Doux Elevages Judgment by stressing the fact that all consumers are indiscriminately affected by the compensation scheme (regardless of their use of wind energy or not) and, consequently, the scheme is of a (quasi)fiscal nature (at least, this is my understading of his considerations in paras 50-54 of his Opinion). I think that this should also be welcome, as such an approach would contribute to limit the possibilities for States to effectively create (disguised) aid schemes by means of (pseudo)fiscal interventions.
In general, in my opinion, AG Jääskinen's Opinion in Vent de Colere should be welcome, not least because of his clear and well-thought proposals to distinguish (and restrict) the implications of the Doux Elevages Judgment.
Let's hope that the CJEU follows him and also adopts a clear position towards limiting the potentially far-fetched implications of Doux Elevages.