recent translations summaries

The Constitutional Court of Hungary, by way of its decision, dismissed with prejudice the constitutional complaints lodged against the phasing-out of the net metering scheme applicable to household-scale small power plants (HMKE).

According to the reasoning of the decision, the gradual abolition of the net metering scheme does not infringe the prohibition of retroactive legislation. The legislature justified the amendment by reference to constitutionally acceptable objectives, namely security of supply, the reduction of market anomalies, and the elimination of cross-subsidisation, which the Constitutional Court of Hungary accepted as sufficient and legitimate grounds. The average payback period of investments relating to photovoltaic systems, even in the absence of State support, may be estimated at seven to eight years, and the phasing-out of the net metering scheme will, in any event, take place only after a period of ten years in the case of each household-scale small power plant (HMKE).

In the assessment of the Court, the impugned amendments did not require any such preparatory measures on the part of the petitioners for which the period between the entry into force of the relevant provisions and their actual application would have proved insufficient.

The decision further records that the change in the method of settlement cannot be linked to the right to property as enshrined in the Fundamental Law.

The Constitutional Court adopted its decision within the framework of the proceedings known as the leading case procedure, in relation to two constitutional complaints; consequently, the proceedings initiated on the basis of further petitions lodged in the same subject matter are terminated.