Under impetus from the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the member states made efforts to adjust their positions in their trialogue talks with the European Parliament and the Commission on the three key legislative texts of the clean energy package (the revised directives on energy efficiency and renewable energies and the regulation on the energy/climate system of governance), at an informal meeting of the European energy ministers in Sofia on Thursday 19 April.
“Discussions were fruitful and constructive. We aim to conclude the talks on these three texts under our Presidency”, summed up the Bulgarian energy minister, Temenuzhka Petkova, who said that the negotiations had made “significant progress” at this point.
“The clean energy package is vital for the EU's transition to a low-carbon economy. Its legislative texts offer investors incentives and stability to ensure the security of the energy systems of the member states”, she added.
According to our information, however, the trialogue talks on these three texts, which launched in February, have made fairly meagre progress (see EUROPE 11992).
Before the meeting in Sofia, Parliament's rapporteurs on the three texts - José Blanco López (S&D, Spain) for renewables, Miroslav Poche (S&D, Czech Republic) for energy efficiency and Michèle Rivasi of France and Claude Turmes of Luxembourg (Greens/EFA) for governance - highlighted the very limited progress secured so far by the Bulgarian Presidency and called upon the capitals to increase the objectives for renewables and energy efficiency up to 2030.
In the position it reached on 17 January, Parliament opted for two binding targets of 35% up to 2030 for renewables and energy efficiency (see EUROPE 11941).
At the Council, the ministers opted for binding targets of 30% for energy efficiency and at least 27% for renewables at EU level (see EUROPE 11816, 11929).
In addition to these two objectives, the Council and Parliament must reach compromises on other key political elements, such as the compulsory annual energy savings target under the 'energy efficiency' directive, and the targets for the transport and heating/cooling sectors under the 'renewables' directive.
“Now is the time to increase the ambition of our objectives. We set a renewables target in October 2014 that was calculated on the basis of the cost of the technology at the time. But since then, the cost of renewable energies has fallen considerably, from onshore or offshore wind power, solar panels or the cost of batteries. Now, we can achieve more ambitious targets with the same level of economic viability”, stressed the Commissioner for Energy and the Climate, Miguel Arias Cañete, following the meeting in Sofia.
On Thursday, “some delegations showed a willingness to agree to more ambitious targets, albeit less ambitious than the Parliament's. Other delegations showed greater caution. The Presidency's role is to reach a compromise and I'm confident that it will do so. And the Commission will act as broker to achieve this”, he added.
The next trialogue discussions will be held on 16 May for the text on energy efficiency, 17 May for renewables and 26 April for the text on governance. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)