Brussels, 18/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has approved in committee the informal agreement concluded with the Council on the corridors for the trans-European energy networks (TEN-E) and on the necessary criteria for obtaining fast-track approval.
The Parliament's energy committee gave its approval on Tuesday 18 December to a draft regulation on the TEN-E, as amended in the report by Antonio Correia de Campos (S&D, Portugal), which aims to accelerate the approval of energy infrastructure projects (power grids and gas pipelines) of common interest that are eligible for public European funding via the Connecting Europe Facility.
The text defines 12 corridors and priority European domains for urgent development, on the basis of which projects of common interest will be selected and will benefit from special regulatory treatment, particularly fast-track permits. Every project selected will have to respond to criteria of market integration, sustainability and supply security.
Requests for obtaining the status of project of common interest will be submitted by project operators. They will be evaluated by the 12 groups of regional experts, composed of member states, the Commission (which will have the power of decision), transmission system operators and project developers.
All the projects of common interest on the final EU list will have to fulfil the conditions required by the authorisation procedures streamlined in the member states where they are developed. The mandatory overall time limit for approving a project will be fixed at three years and six months, and can be extended by a further nine months (the current average is ten years). (EH/transl.fl)