Trialogue negotiations between the Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the European Commission, which have been continuing in parallel on the three flagship legislative texts of the clean energy package (the revised directives on energy efficiency and renewable energy and the regulation on the energy/climate governance system) have hitherto recorded modest progress on the whole, though some notable technical level headway has been made, a Community source revealed on Thursday 29 March.
Negotiators from the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the Commission have, to date, met only twice each for political discussions on the texts on energy efficiency (at the end of February and then on 20 March) and renewables (at the end of February and on 27 March), and only once on the text on governance (21 February).
Two further political level meetings are scheduled: on 16 May for the energy efficiency text and 17 May for renewables. A second trialogue on governance will be held on 26 April.
For the Council, the Bulgarian Presidency strategy is to “conduct intensive technical discussions to come to agreement as far as possible on the less difficult issues before turning to and settling the more sensitive issues at the political level”, a source told us.
According to our information, the talks on the renewables directive came to provisional agreement on 27 March on the compromise suggestions put forward by the Bulgarian Presidency on joint renewable energy projects between member states or between member states and third countries and on the proposal on a European renewable development platform.
Negotiators also managed to settle a number of technical issues in the energy efficiency directive on 20 March, including the Bulgarian Presidency proposal that the “energy efficiency first” principle be included in the body of the text, provided that implementation is economically and ecologically sound, and on the proposed compromise on the optional contribution to the energy efficiency national fund.
In addition, European Parliament negotiators agreed to drop the amendments relating to a list of additional actions within the energy efficiency obligation scheme. In exchange, the Presidency agreed to include a generic recital on the use by the member states of all available means and technologies to achieve energy savings and requesting that member states assess and, if appropriate, take measures to minimise the impact of costs of energy efficiency obligation schemes on the competitiveness of energy-intensive industries exposed to international competition.
Lastly, negotiators reached general agreement on metering for gas and made progress on other metering and billing provisions.
In a plenary session vote on the three texts on 17 January, ahead of the trialogue negotiations, the European Parliament adopted a solid position that was consistent with EU climate commitments, opting for two binding targets of 35% by 2030 for renewables and energy efficiency (see EUROPE 11941).
In the Council, ministers agreed their position on energy efficiency on 26 June 20-17 (see EUROPE 11816) and on renewables and governance on 18 December 2017 (see EUROPE 11929). On the two key 2030 objectives, they opted for indicative targets of 30% energy efficiency and at least 27% of renewables across the EU.
Beyond these two targets, the Council and European Parliament have to find compromises on other key political issues, such as the target for compulsory annual energy savings as part of the energy efficiency directive and targets for the transport and heating and cooling sectors in the renewables directive. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)