Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) gave the green light to start negotiations with the Council of the European Union (‘trilogues’) on the revision of the Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E) Regulation (347/2013) on Tuesday 28 September, during the voting sessions on the draft report by Zdzisław Krasnodębski (ECR, Poland).
Adopted by a large majority (52 votes in favour, 15 against and 7 abstentions), the mandate to start negotiations allows the ITRE Committee to begin the trilogues without the approval of the Parliament in plenary session.
A number of MEPs or one or more political groups reaching at least the average threshold (one tenth of all MEPs) may nevertheless request that the decision to initiate the trilogues be put to the vote in plenary in order to oppose this accelerated procedure.
Mr Krasnodębski does not think that this is possible.
“After more than six months of negotiations, we have reached a compromise confirmed by a large majority of members from four political groups which (...) gives us a solid basis to enter into negotiations with the EU Council after the confirmation of the mandate in plenary next week, which, a priori, will be a mere formality”, he told EUROPE.
Continued use of fossil gas with conditions
Prior to the adoption of the mandate, the ITRE Committee also approved Mr Krasnodębski’s draft report on the TEN-E review (50 votes in favour, 13 against and 12 abstentions), as well as all compromise amendments to the report.
Proposed by the European Commission at the end of 2020 (see EUROPE 12623/3), this revision aims to align the TEN-E regulation with the objectives of the European Green Deal by reforming in particular the criteria for the formation of the lists of projects of common interest’ (PCIs).
This list, which is drawn up every two years, allows trans-European energy infrastructure projects to benefit from certain advantages such as accelerated administrative processing and eligibility for European funding under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
While the Commission had proposed, among other things, to exclude fossil gas projects from the scope of the revised regulation, and thus from the possibility of obtaining PCI status (see EUROPE 12618/9), MEPs decided to provide for a temporary derogation for fossil gas infrastructure projects already on the fourth or fifth list of PCIs (established under the current TEN-E regulation).
Under this derogation, these projects could retain PCI status and be eligible for the first list of PCIs to be established under the revised regulation.
While some fossil gas projects would still be able to benefit from the advantages of PCI status, MEPs decided to exclude fossil gas from the possibility of receiving EU funding.
Transitional period for ‘blending’
In approving all the compromise amendments - previously detailed in our columns (see EUROPE 12792/20) - MEPs also voted in favour of a transitional period for hydrogen infrastructure converted from natural gas infrastructure, as well as for the creation of a new infrastructure category for smart gas networks.
They also propose that the TEN-E regulation should cover not only projects related to CO2 transport (Commission proposal), but also those related to its storage, and advocate the creation of a new category of projects for heating and cooling systems.
Governance
On the governance side, the amendments provide for the creation of a stakeholder committee to work on European energy infrastructure planning with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSO-G) and Electricity (ENTSO-E), as well as a role for the assessment of energy planning by the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change established by the ‘Climate Law’ (see EUROPE 12703/1).
A vote criticised by environmental NGOs
Reacting to the vote, the NGOs CAN Europe and Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE ) criticised the MEPs’ position. According to FoEE, their decision “will likely lead to an expansion of Europe’s gas network and maintain the stranglehold of the fossil fuel industry on Europe’s energy system”.
It should be noted that the Greens/EFA, The Left and Identity and Democracy groups voted against the draft report as amended and the mandate.
To access the adopted compromise amendments: https://bit.ly/3ol1DLH
Voting results for the compromise amendments: https://bit.ly/3kKMFfr
Voting results for the report and mandate: https://bit.ly/3CQZhrO (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)