Promoting biofuels in energy supply: the European legal framework

Article abstract:

The purpose of this article is to examine the European legal framework to promote and support the use of biofuels. The biggest obstacle for a greater use of renewable energies and in particular biofuels is their high production costs as compared to conventional energies. Therefore the EU has established different specific measures to promote their use and to overcome the high production costs. This article gives an insight into today's main legislative instruments, namely the Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection, the Directive on the promotion of biofuels and various taxation measures, among which is, most recently, the new Council Directive restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity.

European Commission: DG Competition: Competition Policy Network, No.2, Summer 2006, p65 http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/publications/cpn/cpn2006_2.pdf

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