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En Federico Fabbrini / October 2024
Russia’s aggression of Ukraine caused a severe energy crisis for the European Union (EU). The purpose of this paper is to examine the core legal measures that the EU deployed since the start of the war to address a spike in energy prices, to facilitate the green transition and to develop an industrial policy for the net-zero age. The paper argues that the EU measures adopted to respond to Russia’s aggression in the fields of energy and industry have exploited potentials of the EU treaties and contributed to mitigate the energy crisis – thus preserving public support for Ukraine’s cause too. Nevertheless, the paper also discusses how EU interventions in the energy market and efforts to decarbonize industry have caused legal and budgetary issues. In particular, the paper assesses the legality of some of the emergency measures, such as a windfall tax on surplus profit for energy companies. Moreover, it considers the challenges to the EU internal market level playing field resulting from the relaxation of EU state aid law – especially in the absence of corresponding supranational spending to fund the green industrial deal – and highlights the risks for EU competitiveness, in line with the recommendations of the Draghi report.
Keywords: War in Ukraine, European Union, energy, industry, emergency measures, legality, level playing field, funding
Federico Fabbrini is Full Professor of European Law & Founding Director of the Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland
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