Polish authorities are under no obligation to submit the new law cutting taxes on electricity to the European Commission, unless they decide themselves that such notification is necessary, sources in the European Commission informed the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
"If Poland assumes that the new bill does not fall under the definition of state aid, then we don’t expect Warsaw to submit anything to the EU Commission," the source told PAP.
However, according to the source, if Polish authorities assess that the new law constitutes a state aid, then the authorities are bound to notify the Commission under the EU law, said another EU Commission official who demanded to remain anonymous.
The European Commission announced last week that it expects Poland to submit its new law cutting tax on electricity for European Union scrutiny to see whether it complies with EU laws prohibiting illegal state subsidies to companies.
Poland's lower house of parliament passed on December 28th legislation to cut tax on electricity as the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party looks to prevent a jump in energy bills ahead of a parliamentary election this year.
State-run utilities have proposed raising household bills by more than 30 percent next year to claw back revenue hit by a 65 percent jump in wholesale electricity prices and a 400 percent leap in carbon emission this year.
Just ahead of a session in the lower house, the PiS government unexpectedly raised its proposal for compensation for utilities up to 4 billion zlotys ($1.1 billion) to help to offset their lost revenue. The proposal lifted shares of state-run utilities Energa, Tauron and PGE by 1-5 percent.
"A member state is obliged to notify to the Commission any state aid measures before they are put into effect," Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told a regular news briefing.
"EU law sates that such measures need to be notified for the Commission to be able to look at them. So far, we have not been notified by the Polish authorities but we would expect them to do so," she said.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters