Brussels, 25/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 25 February, with the adoption (by 551 votes to 24 and 25 abstentions) of the report by Adina-Ioana Vãlean (ALDE, Romania), the European Parliament introduced a series of amendments to the draft regulation on notification of investment projects in EU energy infrastructure, tabled by the European Commission in July 2009 (EUROPE 9944). The Parliament thus plans to clarify certain provisions of the regulation and to modify its legal base in order to adjust it to codecision procedure.
The current regulatory framework for notification of investment projects in energy infrastructure is no longer consistently enforced. Its reporting obligations are heterogeneous and procedures need to be geared to developments in the energy sector. It must also take into account new challenges such as the development of renewables, supply security and climate policy. Also, the new regulation proposed by the Commission would require EU member states to collect and notify data on energy infrastructure investment projects every two years, concerning production, storage and transport of oil, gas, coal, renewable energy, electric power, as well as major projects for district heating and cooling and carbon dioxide capture, transport and storage, planned or under construction in their territory, including interconnections with third countries. This new regulatory framework would allow the Commission to follow developments more closely and to make the market more transparent.
According to the terms of the text amended by Parliament, member states are required to provide data and information as of early 2011, and then every two years. Energy companies are obliged to provide data to their own member states. The notification should include information on capacities, locations, timetables, technologies used in the interest of security of supply, carbon capture systems or retrofitting mechanisms, and comments on delays of obstacles on the implementation of the projects. If these notifications are already required under other specific EU legislation, then member states will be exempted from this obligation. Parliament also wants the rules to apply to EU companies which invest in energy infrastructure projects in third countries that are directly connected to, or impact on, the energy networks of one or more member states.
The amendments brought in by the Parliament include demands that the regulation should have as a legal basis Article 194 of the Treaty, which strengthens the EU's role in energy policy. This would also give the Parliament co-decision powers (the ordinary legislative procedure) on the legislation - the Commission's initial proposal provided only for a consultative role. This amendment was tabled after a favourable opinion by the legal affairs committee; nevertheless the Council and Commission continue to oppose a change of the legal basis. Other amendments aim to clarify the type of planned investment projects that have to be reported, strengthen the confidentiality of the data that would be published by the Commission, ease the reporting burden and improve the usefulness of the analysis carried out by the Commission.
Speaking for the EPP, Romanian MEP Marian-Jean Marinescu was especially pleased that the amended text took account of the key issue of monitoring the impact on the internal energy market of investment in third countries. While welcoming the Parliament's vote for greater transparency on developments in energy supply and co-decision between the Council and the Parliament on infrastructure information, the Greens, through Yannick Jadot (France) regretted the rejection of their amendments which sought to increase transparency on installations for the storage of nuclear waste, and on the financial support from member states to energy infrastructure. (E.H./transl.jl/rt)