The EU Council is due to formally adopt on Tuesday 21 May the four legislative acts on the internal market for electricity, texts on which a compromise has been reached between the EU Council, the European Parliament and the Commission (see EUROPE 12222/16).
The legislative acts will enter into force on the twentieth day following their forthcoming publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia will abstain from voting on the draft regulation on the internal market for electricity.
The EU Council will also approve the text of the Directive on the internal market for electricity.
The new rules will introduce stricter limits for Member States that subsidise power plants, in order to prevent the most polluting fossil fuel power plants in Europe from receiving state aid. The measures will apply to all new power plants from the date of entry into force of the Regulation and to existing power plants from 2025 onwards. Capacity contracts concluded before 31 December 2019 will not be affected by the new rules.
Germany's abstention on ACER. The EU Council will also give the green light to new legislation on risk preparedness in the electricity sector (better protection against sudden power cuts leading to power outages).
The new draft regulation establishing the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) will give more tasks and powers to this body.
Germany will abstain in the vote on ACER, on the grounds that “the final compromise text allows for a transfer of competences from the Member States to national regulatory authorities - and subsequently to ACER - which is too far reaching and also raises legal concerns”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)