What is the purpose of the state aid procedure?
The state aid is intended to prevent the risk of carbon leakage due to the relocation of production enterprises and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
In cases where the increase in CO2 price-related costs cannot be passed on prices due to the international competitive situation, there is a risk that the affected companies will move abroad as a result of competitive disadvantages. This could possibly lead to higher emissions overall (that is "carbon leakage").
Pursuant to section 11(3) of the fuel emissions trading act (BEHG), the federal government is empowered to regulate the measures necessary to prevent carbon leakage and to maintain the Europe-wide and international competitiveness of companies affected by the introduction of the national carbon price. To this end, the federal government, with the consent of the Bundestag, has issued the ordinance on measures to prevent carbon leakage due to national fuel emissions trading (BECV). This ordinance entered into force on 28/07/2021.
Who can apply for state aid?
The conditions for eligibility are set out in section 4 of the BEHG carbon leakage ordinance (BECV) and are explained below.
According to section 4(2) BECV, the applicant company must fulfil the following requirements:
- It must be assigned to a sector eligible for assistance according to the specifications of section 5 and
- has fulfilled the required environmental compensatory measure in accordance with sections 10 to 12 of the BECV.
Pursuant to section 5(1) BECV, an enterprise is eligible for state aid if it can be assigned to a sector or subsector eligible for state aid. Eligible sectors or subsectors are those listed in Tables 1 and 2 of the annex to the BECV or subsequently recognised in the procedure according to section 6 (sections 18 to 22 BECV) and published in the federal gazette.
The crucial factor for the assignment is the production of a product that falls under one of the (sub)sectors mentioned. Thus, in individual cases, the assignment to a sector may deviate from the classification of the enterprise by the states (Länder) statistical offices. In this case, the deviation must be justified by the applicant enterprise or an independent part of the enterprise.
Guideline (available in German only)
Must compensatory measures be provided?
From the 2023 accounting year onwards, the BECV links the granting of State aid to the provision of ‘environmental compensatory measures’ in accordance with sections 10 to 12. Ecological compensatory measures include the operation of an energy or environmental management system (section 10 BECV) and investment in climate protection measures (section 11 BECV).
Industrial production needs to undergo a transformative process to meet climate protection targets. Within this process, BECV aims to combine the targeted reduction of operating costs with State aid for companies in industrial sectors at risk of carbon leakage and the implementation of climate-friendly approaches within companies.
How does the environmental compensatory measure proceed in accordance with the BECV?
According to section 10 BECV, the applicant company must operate an energy or environmental management system in order to receive State aid. In principle, the system should be certified in accordance with DIN EN ISO 50001 or entered in the registry in accordance with EMAS.
A company receives State aid under the BECV if, in addition to the other requirements of this Ordinance, it has made investments in measures to improve energy efficiency that have been specifically identified and assessed as economically feasible as part of the respective energy management system in accordance with section 10 BECV. Companies can also invest in measures to decarbonise production processes (section 11(4) BECV) as an alternative to investing in energy efficiency measures.
The applicant company must provide us, the German Emissions Trading Authority, with evidence that they have performed the environmental compensatory measures in accordance with section 12 BECV. The company's relevant declarations must be confirmed by an authorised verifier.
Further information of performing and evidence handling of environmental compensatory measures in accordance with BECV can be found in the updated ‘BEHG Carbon Leakage Guidance Note – Environmental Compensatory Measures by Companies (sections 10 to 12 BECV)’ (BEHG Carbon Leakage Hinweispapier – Ökologische Gegenleistungen der Unternehmen (§§ 10 bis 12 BECV)).
In addition, you will find instructions for the verifiers authorised to carry out audits in a separate guideline, in which we explain how the companies' declarations on their environmental compensatory measures should be checked and confirmed (section 12 BECV).
Please note that, with effect from the 2025 accounting year, an Excel tool called ‘Investment Surplus’ is now available and must be used when submitting applications to provide evidence of the generation and use of investment surpluses. The Excel tool is available for download under Guides and assistance.
Guidelines, assistance and presentations from the information event (24/04/2024) (available in German only)
How to submit a state aid application?
You can now find the updated ‘BEHG Carbon Leakage (CL) Guideline’ for the 2025 accounting year under ‘Guidelines and further assistance’.
From the 2023 accounting year, the environmental compensatory measures pursuant to sections 10 to 12 BECV must be provided for the first time. For more information on this, please refer to section ‘(D) Must compensatory measures be provided?’.
We, the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt) at the German Environment Agency, are competent for the implementation and application procedures under the BECV in national emissions trading (pursuant to section 3 BECV in conjunction with section 13(1) BEHG).
You, as an applicant company, must prepare your application documents in accordance with the ‘BEHG Carbon Leakage (CL) Guideline’ and the Form Management System (FMS) and have your application data checked by an auditor.
You are required to use the accompanying forms. All relevant documents are available for download under ‘Guidelines and further assistance’.
According to section 13(1)(1) BECV, the deadline for submitting applications for State aid for the prevention of carbon leakage is 30 June of the year following the accounting year. You must submit the complete application to us by this date.
If 30 June falls on a weekend or public holiday, applications must be submitted by the end of the following working day at the latest.
You must also use the electronic application and communication system that we have stipulated (see section F).
To stay up to date, subscribe to our newsletter which will keep you informed about all the latest news on the application procedure and national emissions trading.
Current information on making a request for a file reference number for the carbon leakage compensation procedure
If you are an applicant submitting an application for the BECV compensation for the first time, you must make a request for a file reference number. If you have already received a file reference number in connection with an application for a previous accounting year, please use it for all subsequent accounting years.
Please note that you must submit your compensation application by the deadline, even if you do not yet have a file reference number. This means that you ought to forward the application’s components to your auditing company and your verifiers authorised to carry out audits of environmental compensatory measures even without specifying the file reference number, and then submit them to us. The deadline for submitting carbon leakage applications is a cut-off deadline (section 13(1) BECV).
Guidelines and further information (available in German only)
Electronic communication
From the 2023 accounting year, applications for State aid for the prevention of carbon leakage in accordance with the BECV consisted of two components for the first time.
From April 2026, the updated Form Management System (FMS) for submitting applications for the 2025 accounting year (‘CL compensation’) and the updated FMS application for providing evidence of ecological services (‘evidence of ecological services’) will be available via the links below.
Please note that the application is only considered complete when both parts of the application data sets (application data from ‘CL compensation’ and ‘öGL evidence’) have been received by DEHSt. Both parts of the application must be submitted to DEHSt by 30 June ("substantive cut-off deadline") of the calendar year following the billing year ( compare section 13 (1) BECV).
The server-based FMS web application must be used for the acquisition of your application data within the carbon leakage compensation.
The FMS supports applicants and auditors or applicants and authorised reviewers with completion instructions and input validations to ensure that the data sets submitted are both error-free and as complete as possible.
You must first set up user access in the FMS acquisition software to be able to submit a carbon leakage compensation application. The link to the FMS acquisition software and the FMS manual can be found on the right.
With the start date 01/04/2024, the new centralised user administration will be used in the "Form Management System" (FMS). You can then use your account in the FMS applications, CL compensation 2024 and certificates "öGL 2024". In addition, this account will also be valid for the FMS application "Electricity price compensation 2024". In future, you will therefore only need one account in the FMS and will be able to participate in all three procedures.
If you already have an account in the BEHG segment of the FMS, you can already use it and do not need to create a new account. Please note the information text on the welcome pages of the FMS applications.
For the application procedure pursuant to section 13 (1) BECV, DEHSt stipulates the use of the electronic form pursuant to section 17 (1) BEHG - this includes both the use of the FMS forms and the use of the VPS (see BAnz AT 03.05.2022 B11 and BAnz AT 25.06.2024 B7).
Announcement in the Federal Gazette from 25.06.2024 B7 (available in German only)
Announcement in the Federal Gazette from 03.05.2022 B11 (available in German only)
All applications or their components must be submitted via the Virtual Post Office (VPS) together with a qualified electronic signature. Please refer to our ‘Electronic communication’ page.
We particularly recommend that all new applicants apply for a Qualified Electronic Signature card (QES) as soon as possible. Obtaining and activating a QES signature card can take up to three months under certain circumstances. Therefore, please plan to apply for the signature card as early as possible.
As a user of our Virtual Post Office (VPS), you are obliged to regularly check your mailbox for incoming messages. We recommend that you set up an automated email notification for incoming messages within the VPS server, accessible through the Options & email notification menu in your mailbox. This additional service does not replace regular checking of your VPS mailbox. Our electronic administrative files are considered notified three days after dispatch in accordance with section 41 (2) of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Please note the technical process for submitting applications (see " BEHG Carbon Leakage (CL): Information paper on environmental compensatory measures by companies (sections 10 to 12 BECV)" in chapter 4.3.1.
Application procedure following the subsequent recognition of (sub)sectors and special classification procedure
Background: Procedures for submitting applications under the subsequent recognition of eligible sectors process pursuant to sections 18 through 22 of the BECV and the special classification procedure pursuant to Section 23 of the BECV
Pursuant to the procedures regarding the subsequent recognition of eligible sectors as well as the special classification procedure as laid out by BECV (Sections 18 through 22 of BECV), the Federal Government has submitted a request to the European Commission for the retroactive recognition of additional sectors and subsectors.
The approval under state aid law by the European Commission (SA.122480 (2026/N) has been in effect since 28/05/2026. The notice pursuant to Section 18(2) of the BECV marks the conclusion of the two procedures under Sections 6 and 7 of the BECV and the start of the retrospective application procedure.
(available in German only)
Zur Bekanntmachung im Bundesanzeiger vom 12.06.2026
Deadline
The announcement of the approval of the subsequent recognition of sectors eligible for aid, as well as of the special classification procedure pursuant to BECV, was published by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) in the Electronic Federal Gazette on 12/06/2026.
This publication lists the sectors and subsectors that have been subsequently recognized, along with the applicable aid intensitys, as well as the aid intensitys for subsectors that were previously recognized and have been adjusted in accordance with the special classification procedure.
The subsequent recognition of eligible sectors and subsectors (Sections 20 and 21 of BECV) takes effect as of the date of publication in the Electronic Federal Gazette specified above, as does the adjustment of the aid intensity for subsectors already recognized in accordance with the special classification procedure (Section 23 of BECV).
Please note that companies in sectors and subsectors that are subsequently recognized have three months from the date of publication in the Federal Gazette to submit their applications for compensation to the Federal Environment Agency in a timely manner (pursuant to Section 13(1), second sentence, of the BECV). The three-month application period, which begins on the date of publication in the Federal Gazette, also applies to applications related to the adjustment of the compensation level for already recognized subsectors in accordance with the special classification procedure (Section 23 BECV).
This means that the deadline for the retroactive application process covering up to five accounting years (2021 through 2025) is 14/09/2026 (statute of limitations).
Applications submitted after the deadline of 14/09/2026 are not permitted. Please also note that this applies to applications for all accounting years from 2021 to 2025 or from 2023 to 2025.
Publication of the Guidance Document on the Retroactive Application Process
The “Guidance Document on BEHG Carbon Leakage: Application for Aid in Connection with the Subsequent Recognition of Eligible Sectors and the Special Classification Procedure Pursuant to BECV” (Hinweispapier BEHG Carbon Leakage: Antragstellung für Beihilfe in Zusammenhang mit der nachträglichen Anerkennung beihilfeberechtigter Sektoren sowie dem Besonderen Einstufungsverfahren gemäß BECV) is now available for download on our website.
This guidance document provides information on the application process for aid related to the subsequent recognition of sectors eligible for aid and the special classification procedure for adjusting the compensation level of sectors already eligible for aid.
Please also note and take into account the guidance provided in the margin.
The current versions of these documents generally also apply to companies wishing to submit applications to us as part of the aforementioned retroactive application process.
(available in German only)
Update of FMS Applications for the Accounting Years 2021 through 2025
The expansion of the product catalog (PRODCOM) and the carbon leakage list for selection in the FMS applicaitons “CL-Kompensation-2022” for the accounting years 2021 to 2022 and “CL Kompensation” for the accounting years 2023 to 2025 in the Form Management System (FMS) has now been completed.
For annual applications, as is familiar from the regular application process, an application must be submitted for each accounting year based on the corresponding FMS application. Each application must list only the data or the eligible fuel and/or heat quantities in accordance with § 9 BECV from the corresponding accounting year. Each application must be verified separately by a certified public accountant. The DEHSt will then issue a separate decision for each accounting year and application.
If the 5-in-1 application format can be used, only the FMS application “CL Compensation” (CL-Kompensation) for the 2025 accounting year may be used for this purpose. When using this application format, the data must be listed retroactively for up to five accounting years in a single application, which is why the term “5-in-1 application” has been established. We will then announce our decision covering the relevant accounting years.
Overview of the Expansion and Revision of the Carbon Leakage List in Accordance with BECV
The expansion of the list of eligible sectors and subsectors in accordance with BECV – comprises the following sectors and subsectors:
Evaluations and reports
Reports on the BECV consultation process
We have also been conducting an annual consultation (section 26 (2) BECV) since 2022 to evaluate the impact of the BECV.
Further information and all previously published reports can be found at the following link.
Evaluation reports on carbon leakage compensation
We, the German Emissions Trading Authority at the Federal Environment Agency, publish the results of the application procedure in the year following the submission of the application, in accordance with the BEHG Carbon Leakage Regulation (Section 26(1) BECV).
Transparency reports on carbon leakage compensation
According to the state aid approval of the BECV by the European Commission the Federal Republic of Germany is obliged to publish data from companies with aid amounts of over 100,000 euros.
footnote