The measure, proposed by the European Commission following pressure from seven EU member states including Britain, France and Germany, throws a lifeline to some projects struggling to comply with the EU's 2.1 billion euro ($2.7 billion) scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The recipients under the first round of the NER300 programme had been due to make their final investment decisions by the end of 2014 and be operational by the end of 2016, but seven EU nations asked the Commission to delay all deadlines by two years.

Projects awarded funding in the second round announced in July now have until 2018 for final investment decisions and 2020 for activation.

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Source: Reuters by Michael Szabo, 15 Oct 2014