Today, Glass Fibre Europe submitted its response to the public consultation on the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER).
While Glass Fibre Europe supports the objective of the GBER to facilitate the deployment of State aid while safeguarding fair competition in the Single Market, the association is concerned that certain provisions in the draft regulation would effectively exclude investments in the continuous filament glass fibre sector from support.
Glass Fibre Europe therefore calls for amendments to Articles 51(3)(b), 52(3)(b), and 55(3)(d) to ensure that aid remains available for furnaces using natural gas in combination with other energy sources. At present, no commercially available and technologically mature alternatives allow these processes to operate entirely on carbon-neutral energy.
Further details are available in the position paper below.