13.12.2021

Official Journal of the European Union

C 502/13

(Case C-580/21)

(2021/C 502/20)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: EEW Energy from Waste Großräschen GmbH

Defendant: MNG Mitteldeutsche Netzgesellschaft Strom GmbH

Other party: 50Hertz Transmission GmbH

Questions referred

1.Is Article 16(2)(c) of Directive 2009/28/EC, (1) read in conjunction with Article 2(a) and (e) thereof, to be interpreted as meaning that priority in respect of the feeding of electricity into the grid must also be given to generating installations in which electricity is produced by means of thermal recovery from mixed waste, whereby the waste contains a variable proportion of industrial and municipal biodegradable waste?

2.If Question 1 is answered in the affirmative, is the giving of priority in respect of the feed-in of electricity pursuant to Article 16(2)(c) of Directive 2009/28/EC dependent on the proportion of biodegradable waste used in the production of electricity in the manner described in Question 1?

3.If Question 2 is answered in the affirmative, is there a materiality threshold for the proportion of biodegradable waste below which the rules applicable to electricity from renewable energy sources do not apply to the electricity produced?

4.If Question 3 is answered in the affirmative, what is the level of that threshold, or how is the threshold to be determined?

5.If Questions 1 and 2 are answered in the affirmative, when applying the rules on electricity from renewable energy sources to electricity which has been produced only partly from biodegradable waste, can the legal rationale underlying the second subparagraph of Article 5(3) of Directive 2009/28/EC be applied in such a way that those rules apply only to the part of electricity produced from renewable energy sources, and that part is calculated on the basis of the energy content of the individual energy sources?

* Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and amending and subsequently repealing Directives 2001/77/EC and 2003/30/EC (OJ 2009 L 140, p. 16).