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In this foreword, we report the most recent relevant cases of state aid control since the European Commission’s Guidelines on State Aid for Environmental Protection and Energy (the Guidelines) were published in 2014. We discuss an important series of decisions related to compatible financing of renewable energy sources and generation adequacy. These cases fall into three categories, which we describe as “the Good”, “the Bad” and “the Ugly.” Those in the Good category refer to the objective of the aid and its properties in the context of the functioning of the internal market. The Bad category cases include those where procedures have not been complied with, or are aimed at objectives that can be described as ‘unfair’, or cases involving omissions by the involved parties. The Ugly category includes those cases where the aid contributes to maintenance or development of non-renewable energy sources, either nuclear or fossil fuel (e.g. coal) which are outside the contexts envisaged by the Commission Guidelines.
