Brussels, 20/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 20 February, the Council of the EU adopted a new regulation on notifying the European Commission of investment projects in energy infrastructure within the EU.
The law is similar in content and scope to the same regulation of 2010 on the transparency of information on energy infrastructure. The 2010 regulation was adopted without going through the co-decision procedure, however, which resulted in the European Parliament taking the case to the European Court of Justice as the Parliament contested the legal basis of the adoption of the regulation. Having won its case, the Parliament amended the new draft law at the beginning of February - a draft which was proposed by the Commission in March 2013, and which extended the law's scope to coal (see EUROPE 11013).
The new regulation still obliges member states to notify the Commission every two years of data and information on certain types of investment project for the construction, modernisation or decommissioning of production capacities, and to notify the Commission every two years of transport and storage of oil, natural gas, electricity produced from renewable sources (and biofuels produced from these sources) and electricity produced from lignite and coal (and of carbon dioxide produced from these sources, through carbon capture and storage infrastructure). The objective of the regulation remains the same - to guarantee that the Commission is regularly informed of investment projects in energy infrastructure so as to ensure the smooth operation of the internal energy market. The Commission will have to produce an analysis every two years of the structural evolution and outlook of the EU energy system, and to detect any potential imbalances between supply and demand, and obstacles to investment.
The Commission will assess the implementation of the new regulation by 31 December 2016 at the latest. While awaiting the new regulation's entry into force on the 20th day after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, the effects of Regulation 617/2010 (annulled by the Court of Justice in September 2012) remain in force. (EH/transl.fl)