EU Commission to propose help to de-risk power deals, document shows

By Julia Payne and Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission will next week propose a broad package of measures to support struggling EU industries, including help to de-risk power purchase deals and simpler state aid rules, a draft of its Clean Industrial Deal showed on Tuesday.

The Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has made reversing Europe's industrial decline her key focus in her second term as president. In January, von der Leyen announced a Competitiveness Compass outlining the Commission's aims for the next two years.

One of the landmark packages is the Clean Industrial Deal, which the Commission will announce next week. The deal aims to support energy-intensive industries that face "high energy costs, unfair global competition and complex regulations" as well as boost the clean-tech sector.

As part of its plans to tackle high energy prices, the Commission is set to propose an Action Plan for Affordable Energy. The plan includes a pilot programme with the European Investment Bank to de-risk power purchase agreements with a focus on small and midcap companies.

The EIB will also introduce a "Grids Manufacturing package" to provide guarantees for manufacturers of grid components. EU countries need to revamp and expand their power grids in order to meet the EU's climate change targets, which depend on electrification.

The Commission also intends to simplify state aid rules by July this year and carbon duties, introduce dynamic gas storage targets and tell member states to "lower taxes on electricity to the legal minimum thresholds."

European utility companies said last year the heavy tax burden was hampering new investments.

The Commission also wants to mobilise funds from the next budget, known as the MFF, to provide "short-term relief...to improve the business case for EU-made clean manufacturing".

(Reporting by Julia Payne and Kate Abnett; Editing by David Goodman, Alexandra Hudson)