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European Commission - Speech Remarks by Executive Vice-President Ribera at the press conference on the Middle East crisis Temporary State aid Framework Brussels, 29 April 2026 Good afternoon. It has been two months since the conflict in the Middle East drew us to the biggest disruption to oil and gas supply. How and when this conflict will be solved remains uncertain, as is the impact on our energy prices and the eff...
European Commission - Speech Remarks by Executive Vice-President Ribera at the press conference on the Middle East crisis Temporary State aid Framework Brussels, 29 April 2026 Good afternoon. It has been two months since the conflict in the Middle East drew us to the biggest disruption to oil and gas supply. How and when this conflict will be solved remains uncertain, as is the impact on our energy prices and the effects on global economy. The structural answer is clear: energy security requires to accelerate the energy transition towards homegrown clean affordable solutions. A week ago, we presented the Accelerate EU communication: Actions that will accelerate and step up investments in renewables and electrification. Actions that will bring the European citizens and businesses the energy sovereignty, lower energy prices and resilience we seek. But the impacts on our citizens and companies demand immediate answers. They need to be proportionate and effective. Drawing lessons from the previous energy crisis helps us to identify the best options to make them available to Member States. Last week, we already proposed measures to shield households from energy price spikes: income support schemes, social leasing programme, and lowering electricity taxes for vulnerable households. These measures targeting households and citizens do not constitute State aid. But when Member States grant financial support to companies (businesses), they need to comply with State aid rules. And that is what we are adopting today: the framework that enables to grant State aid for mitigating the immediate adverse effects on the most exposed European businesses, while preserving a level playing field in the Single Market. It reflects a thorough and pragmatic process. We have built on our experience with previous crisis frameworks, identifying the measures that proved most effective in practice, notably targeted support to energy costs, and swift, flexible implementation by Member States. In order to come up with this proposal, we engaged closely with Member States, hearing from them which sectors are most exposed and if additional measures were needed. Member States called for simple and flexible rules, for targeting sectors relying on imported fuels and stronger support for energy-intensive industries. These elements are reflected in our response, which covers directly those needs, while preserving a coordinated European approach. It is a temporary and targeted framework. Temporary: because these rules will apply until the end of this year, until December. Within this timeframe, Member States can modulate the temporary character of the support according to their needs. As already said, it is uncertain how long this situation could last, but we will monitor and are ready to reassess the rules if and when needed in the future. The measures that we are proposing today are proportionate to the current effects of the crisis. That is why the framework is also a targeted one. It identifies those sectors that are directly and most heavily affected by fuel price spikes and that are particularly exposed to fuel price volatility. These most exposed sectors are: agriculture, fisheries, transport and energy-intensive industries. Indeed, farmers are under pressure from multiple directions. They rely on fuel for their machines and tractors. They also suffer from rising input costs on fertilisers. Fishermen and transport operators are exposed to fuel costs with no realistic immediate alternatives. For the transport sector, we cover road transport, rail, inland waterways and short-sea shipping in the EU. These are temporary and targeted measures. Also, if anything, the current crisis highlights even more the need to accelerate the modal shift towards more sustainable modes of transport, such as rail and other electrified options (for which we already have specific State aid rules in place). So, what are the specific measures for the most exposed sectors that we are talking about today? For agriculture, fishery and transport, we allow for compensation for the price increases of fuel. For agriculture, we also cover fertilisers. Member States will be able to compensate up to 70% of a beneficiary's extra costs from the price increase of fuel and fertilisers caused by the crisis, so compared to levels before 28 February. We also introduce a simplified option of a flat rate compensation going up to €50,000 per beneficiary. This simplified option will be attractive in particular for the most vulnerable and exposed one to the crisis, I am thinking about the small farmers, fishers and transporters, the micro- and small undertakings. Turning to the energy-intensive industries, we were asked to provide further relief from electricity bills. This type of support is already possible under the Clean Industrial State aid framework, the CISAF, adopted last June. What we do now is to amplify, temporarily, our standing rules in CISAF for those industries. We increase the aid intensities: until now it was possible to compensate for 50% of the eligible electricity consumption. We now raise this up to seventy percent (70%), again, in the temporary context. We also allow for more flexibility on specific conditions linked to that support, by allowing partial cumulation with the indirect cost compensation allowed under our ETS State aid guidelines and by not requiring companies to reinvest in decarbonisation for the temporary additional support. With our rules, we strike the right balance between short-term support and long-term transformation: helping industry now, in the immediate, survive to the immediate shock caused by the crisis, while keeping their decarbonisation trajectory intact. Last but not least, I want to thank those who helped us to come up with this framework, in particular the Member States. From day one, Member States have been fully engaged. They understood the urgency. They moved fast. And they helped us to shape the framework as presented today: a targeted, temporary and proportionate response that will help to shield European businesses from the immediately felt effects of the Middle East conflict. Thank you. SPEECH/26/931 Press contacts: Ricardo CARDOSO (+32 2 29 80100) Luuk DE KLEIN (+32 2 299 47 74) General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email Related media EC press conference by European Commission Executive Vice-President Teresa RIBERA on the Temporary State Aid Framework
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