Brussels, 12/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU now has a simplified approval process for speeding up the construction of energy network infrastructure.
In plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday 12 March, the European Parliament approved, by 539 votes to 85, with 16 abstentions, the draft Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E) regulation, which aims to accelerate the approval of priority projects of common interest, such as pipelines and power grids, which will be eligible for funding under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
Parliament, thus, validated the informal agreement reached by its rapporteur, Antonio Correia de Campos (S&D, Portugal) with the Council, following intense negotiations. In a press release, de Campos indicated that “we are working on measures that attempt to create a genuine European energy market but the situation in which we are evolving is a situation where member states appear to want to see their national energy markets from the point of view of autonomy and protectionism. We need solidarity to generate stable supplies and provide appropriate interoperability between different countries in an attempt to prevent geographic isolation of certain regions in Europe”.
Commissioner Günther Oettinger welcomed “a breakthrough, which will provide a greater boost for crucial infrastructure”. He provided assurances that “rather than having to wait for up to 12 years or more to obtain a licence, essential cross-border infrastructure developers will benefit from a decision in at least four years. This will help to save time and money and help us create a genuine European energy market where the systems are physically connected to each other. Consumers and companies will benefit from this because competition keeps costs down”.
The new regulation defines 12 European priority areas in need of urgent development, on the basis of which projects of common interest will be selected and benefit from special regulatory treatment, particularly by way of swift authorisations. Any project selected will have to meet integration criteria on the markets, sustainability and security of supply.
Requests to obtain project of common interest status will be submitted by project operators. They will be evaluated by the 12 groups of regional experts, consisting of member states and the Commission (which will have decision-making power), network operators and project promoters.
All projects of common interest included on the EU's final list will have to meet the conditions required by way of the rationalised authorisation procedures in the member states where they are developed. The general compulsory deadline for approving projects will be set at three years and six months but could be extended by an additional nine months (the current average deadline stands at ten years).
The Council will still need to formally approve the regulation, which will come into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. (EH/transl.fl)