MEPs, particularly those from countries neighbouring the conflict, expressed their concern when the draft opinion on the energy taxation directive was presented to the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on Thursday 3 March. At the outset of his presentation, Robert Hajšel (S&D, Slovakia), rapporteur, recalled the urgency of the situation: “We will have to work on decreasing and containing the instabilities that are clearly threatening the Europe Member States’ economies and citizens”.
“We need concrete measures and actions to reduce our dependence on Russia”, he added, stressing the importance of “diversifying our energy sources” and “accelerating the transition to cleaner and renewable energy”.
The shadow rapporteurs generally supported the Commission’s proposal for a directive (see EUROPE 12806/26), provided that the situation in Ukraine does not deteriorate. “We can no longer have any illusions, if we don’t find an agreement, we will have to do what Putin wants”, argued Bronis Ropė (Greens/EFA, Lithuania).
To alleviate the problem, Łukasz Kohut (S&D, Poland) wants to amend the text to temporarily zero-rate coal until the situation changes. The issue of purchasing power was raised several times, including fuel poverty. While some welcome the rapporteur’s initiative to replace the current definition of ‘vulnerable consumers’ with a quantitative definition of energy poverty, others prefer to leave it to Member States to assess who the vulnerable are.
Finally, in addition to geopolitical concerns, the idea of a common certification framework of energy origin received some support among MEPs, but the administrative overload of such a measure still raised reservations.
To read the draft opinion of the ITRE Committee: https://aeur.eu/f/lx (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)