The European Green Deal envisages a clean and decarbonised energy sector with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. These ambitious objectives entrust the Member States with enormous tasks in connection with the transformation process, which must always be designed in a proportionate manner. For this purpose, compensation measures are regularly part of decarbonisation strategies. In the context of the German lignite phase-out, new legal challenges arise due to State aid law. In particular, the present case poses the question of how elements of settlement agreements are to be assessed under State aid law. This field currently seems to be almost unexplored, as the Commission’s notice on the notion of State aid only refers to settlement agreements in connection with tax law. However, settlement agreements contain some important elements that should be properly taken into account by the Commission in its State aid assessment. The fact that settlement agreements serve to avoid legal and factual uncertainties, especially in the context of highly complex decarbonisation strategies, must play a decisive role in an all-embracing economic analysis.