Before passing the baton on to Austria, on 1 July, the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU launched trialogue discussions with negotiators from the European Parliament, headed by Krisjanis Karins (EPP, Latvia), on Wednesday 27 June. Discussion was on the texts proposed by the European Commission end 2016 – a revised directive on common rules for the electricity market and a revised regulation on the electricity market – for “electricity market redesign”.
“The first trialogues are always about stating the most important points for both institutions. As regards the substance, no surprises here, capacity mechanisms, emission performance standard and regulated prices are the key points both for the Parliament and the Council”, a source in Parliament confided.
The next session of trialogue talks, which will allow the parties to enter into the core of the subject, is scheduled for September, under Austrian presidency.
The leading issue is the Commission’s proposal aimed at limiting emissions at 550 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour for electricity generating plants that provide surge capacity for facilitating the transition towards cleaner electricity generation. On this point, the Council’s general approach is based on a fragile compromise reached in December 2017 (see EUROPE 11929).
On the other thorny issue of regulated prices, the Council came to an agreement end 2017, seeing eye to eye on a flexible solution allowing them to be kept in place temporarily (see EUROPE 11928).
Together with the revised regulation on the European agency for the cooperation of energy regulators (ACER) and the regulation on risk preparedness in the electricity sector, which will also be the subject of trialogue talks during the second half of the year, the directive and the revised regulation on the electricity market aim to increase market competition, strengthen consumers’ powers and allow them to be more actively involved on the market as small producers.
During the energy committee on 21 February, Parliament adopted its draft negotiation mandates, which were later confirmed by the plenary (see EUROPE 11966). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)