Am 6. Juni 2023 hat das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK) das vorbereitende Verfahren für das milliardenschwere Förderprogramm „Klimaschutzverträge“ eingeleitet (Bekanntmachung im BAnz AT 06.06.2023 B1). Diese sog. Klimaschutzverträge – und die daraus resultierende Förderung – haben das Ziel, Unternehmen bei der Umstellung auf eine klimafreundlichere Produktion zu unterstützen und diese somit attraktiver zu machen. Das Programm ist ein wesentlicher Baustein auf dem Weg in Richtung der angestrebten Klimaneutralität Deutschlands. Eine Teilnahme am vorbereitenden Verfahren ist zwingende Grundvoraussetzung für eine Teilnahme am anschließenden Gebotsverfahren sowie eine Bewerbung für die staatliche Förderung. Die Frist für die Teilnahme am vorbereitenden Verfahren endet am 7. August 2023.

It has long been recognised that financial support in favour of football clubs can distort fair competition. A widespread concern is that investors behind the big European clubs like Manchester City, Paris Saint Germain, or Chelsea FC reign over professional football with their money at will. In light of this, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) established the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. With the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, which entered into force in January 2023, there may be another instrument to address financial advantages to football clubs perceived as unfair if the investment is attributable to a government outside the EU.

On 1 June 2023, the European Commission finally adopted its revised Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations on Research and Development (R&D) and Specialisation agreements, which are accompanied by the revised Horizontal Guidelines (2023 Horizontal Guidelines).

Finding the right balance between strengthening cooperation pursuing sustainability goals on the one side and ensuring compliance with competition law on the other has been a major topic of competition authorities and regulators in recent years (see our briefings of 26 January 2022 and 7 February 2021). The competition community is eagerly awaiting the European Commission’s second draft of the horizontal guidelines. Meanwhile, the German FCO announced on Thursday that the animal welfare initiative “Initiative Tierwohl” will abolish the compulsory premium because of competition law concerns.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), which can be prompted to create wholly novel content, is a hot topic all around, from news and social media to policymakers and businesses. Image-generating AI models that create (digital) paintings inspired by van Gogh or other famous artists in seconds, or text-generating AI models like ChatGPT that pass university exams with ease are fascinating the internet community. Fact is that many generative AI-based applications have been made available to the public in the last months, from machine translations to image recognition and music generation. Yet, this is just the beginning of a ground-breaking technology, which will sooner than later be deployed in a wide spectrum of activities and become a critical infrastructure for many businesses.

On 18 April, the European Parliament adopted the CBAM, an unprecedented carbon border adjustment charge, which takes into account the greenhouse gas emissions embedded in imported goods of emissions-intensive sectors with a high risk of so-called “carbon leakage”. Carbon leakage takes place when, for reasons of costs related to climate policies in the EU, businesses transfer their production plants to other countries outside the bloc with less costly climate policies (see our briefing from July 2021). The initiative is part of the 2030 Climate and Energy “Fit for 55” legislative package under the European Green Deal, an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% until 2030 compared to the levels of 1990.

On 19 April, the European Parliament approved the Regulation on deforestation-free products, which prohibits the placement of a number of agricultural and livestock products originating from deforested or degraded forest areas on the EU market (text will be available here). The Regulation aims to block imports associated with deforestation, particularly cattle (whether live, meat or leather), cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soy, timber and rubber (read our briefing from November 2021).

BLOMSTEIN engagiert sich weiter gemeinsam mit der Berliner Architektenkammer für eine wettbewerbsfreundlichere Vergabe von Architektur- und Planungsleistungen in Berlin.

Mit Urteil vom 9. März 2023 in der Rechtssache C-571/21 hat der EuGH klargestellt, dass Stromproduzenten für eine Vielzahl von Vorgängen, die der eigentlichen Stromerzeugung vor- und nachgelagert sind, gemäß unionsrechtskonformer Auslegung des nationalen Rechts Anspruch auf Stromsteuerbefreiung haben. Damit setzt der EuGH der bisher vorherrschenden Auffassung in der Zollverwaltung und Rechtsprechung Grenzen.

After a reportedly heated debate among EU leaders, the EU has adopted its long announced tenth package of sanctions at the anniversary of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The latest package introduces yet another set of comprehensive sanctions, including additional financial sanctions on individuals, companies, and three additional Russian banks, the expansion of export and import bans, measure aimed at strengthening enforcement and preventing circumvention, as well as further measures. No additional measures were taken with respect to Belarus. Here are the details: