The outcome of the very tight vote anticipated at the plenary session of the European Parliament on Wednesday 17 January on the draft revised directive on energy efficiency will be critical, over and above the level of the Community target up to 2030 to accompany the text, for Parliament’s position in its forthcoming negotiations with the Council.
On Wednesday, Parliament will be called upon to confirm its trialogue negotiating mandates with the Council and the Commission on three key legislative texts of the ‘package of measures for clean energy’ - the revised directives on energy efficiency and renewables and the regulation on the ‘energy/climate’ system of governance.
In particular, the MEPs will be asked to confirm the EU’s binding targets up to 2030, which won the support of the committee on energy, on two draft revised directives: a share of 35% of renewable energy sources in the EU’s primary energy consumption and a 40% improvement in energy efficiency (see EUROPE 11914).
The S&D group, to which the rapporteurs on both texts belong (José Blanco López of Spain for renewables and Miroslav Poche of the Czech Republic for energy efficiency), considers that it is “possible to have a highly efficient energy system entirely based on renewables”, according to Belgium’s Kathleen Van Brempt, the group’s coordinator on the ‘energy’ dossier, on Tuesday 16 January.
“For renewables, there is a large majority in favour of a binding target of 35% at EU level, as opposed to the low target of 27% proposed by the Commission”, she stated.
During the plenary debate on Monday, the shadow rapporteur of the EPP group on the revised ‘renewables’ directive, Séan Kelly of Ireland, confirmed that the group supported the 35% target.
“For energy efficiency, we want a target of 40% energy efficiency, the Commission proposed just 30%. We have managed to move the positions. I feel that a target of 40% is feasible”, Van Brempt added, calling for article 7, which gives the member states flexibilities, to be “very strict”, and stressing that the energy efficiency of public buildings and the fight against energy poverty were the other important points of the text in her group’s view.
However, the vote on the energy efficiency target level, which narrowly won the support of the committee on energy and was dismissed as unrealistic by the Conservatives, will be very tight.
The compromise reached in early January between the EPP and S&D groups in favour of a binding target of 35% broke down due to the further demands of the Socialists concerning other provisions of the text. Since then, the EPP, the largest group of MEPs in numerical terms, has toughened its stance and is defending a 30% target.
The ecological groups (Greens/EFA) - which will initially support the 40% target - and the Liberals (ADLE) have tabled an amendment for a 35% target.
“We have some good compromises. For the ‘energy efficiency’ directive, we had a lot of problems; the original rapporteur of the S&D group (Polish MEP Adam Gierek: Ed) had to be changed, as he was not toeing his group’s line”, explained Ska Keller (Greens/EFA, Germany).
With the support of the S&D, GUE/NGL and EFDD groups, a majority is possible in favour of a 35% target, a Greens/EFA source told us on Tuesday, adding that only some of the EPP would be voting for a lower target.
“The outcome of the final vote on the whole of the text will be critical”, the same source also told us. If the EPP and ECR groups vote against the Poche report, the “Parliament could come out of it with a greatly weakened position” ahead of the trialogue negotiations with the Council.
In the position it agreed upon in June 2017, the Council abandoned the binding nature of the target of 30% energy efficiency by 2030 in favour of a general target of 30% (see EUROPE 11816).
A stricter regime for bio-fuels. In the framework of the revised ‘renewables’ directive, the Parliament must also take position on the role of bio-fuels in energy consumption in the field of transport in the EU. At committee, the MEPs supported completely scrapping first-generation bio-fuels by 2030 (compared to an upper limit of 7% at the moment and a ceiling of 3.8% proposed by the Commission up to 2030) and a ban on bio-fuels from palm oil from 2021.
On Tuesday, French EPP members Angélique Delahaye and Michel Dantin declared it unacceptable for the directive to put an end to the production of sustainable bio-fuels from agriculture.
Dantin pointed out that EU agricultural players have stepped up efforts to develop a sector of bio-fuels from crops and waste products, producing greenhouse gas emissions that are 60% lower on average compared to fossil fuels, and that bio-fuels therefore constitute a vital asset for the EU to honour its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Governance – compromise on trajectories. Concerning the draft regulation on the ‘energy/climate’ system of governance, on which two Greens/EFA members, Michèle Rivasi of France and Luxembourg’s Claude Turmes, are the rapporteurs, the EPP, S&D, ALDE and Greens/EFA groups have tabled four joint amendments on the vital question of trajectories (linear versus progressive), proposing progressive trajectories with three reference points (2022, 2025 and 2027), an obligation for the Commission to analyse the national trajectories and a requirement for the member states to take extra action within a year in the event of deviating from their trajectories. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)