On Friday 8 April, the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union sent Member States two documents outlining the state of negotiations in the Council on the revision of the EU directives on energy efficiency (2018/2002 - EED) and renewable energy sources (2018/2001 - RED II).
EED. While the proposal for the revision of the EED provides for an energy efficiency target of 39% for primary energy consumption and 36% for final energy consumption (see EUROPE 12762/8), the Presidency points out that many Member States support different approaches as to how to achieve this target.
The Presidency says the divisions are mainly centred on four points, including the national contributions set out in the proposal.
“Many delegations have asked to introduce some flexibility in the formula for calculating this contribution, so that it is not made binding”, the French document stresses.
On the other hand, “some delegations” argued for keeping it as it is in order to ensure that the overall objective of the proposed revision is achieved.
Member States are also divided on the obligation to ensure that the total final energy consumption of all public bodies combined is reduced by at least 1.7% each year compared to the year X-2 (X being the year of entry into force of the revised directive). Several have called for either the rate to be lowered or the scope of the rate to be narrowed (by limiting it to certain categories of public buildings).
Another problematic point is the obligation for Member States to reduce their final energy consumption by at least 1.5% per year between 2024 and 2030, based on the average of the last 3 years before 1 January 2020.
While “several [national] delegations” considered this target too ambitious, some have argued for maintaining it, “considering that this would be essential to achieve the EU’s objectives”. In addition, the exclusion of direct fossil fuel combustion from the methodology for calculating the obligation still poses difficulties for some Member States.
Finally, EU countries are divided on the provisions related to the heating and cooling sector.
Faced with these divisions, Paris offers delegations a choice between two options.
The first would be to give Member States more flexibility in the formula for determining their national and public sector contributions.
With regard to the annual energy savings obligation, this option would allow energy savings from the direct combustion of fossil fuels in industry to be accounted for temporarily from 2024 to 2030, if recommended following an energy audit.
In the second option, the Presidency proposes to keep the national contributions as proposed by the European Commission and to increase the binding targets for the public sector step by step from 2024 to 2028.
The same step-by-step increase would be applied for the annual energy savings obligation, maintaining the exclusion of energy savings resulting from direct fossil fuel combustion.
RED II. With regard to the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II), the French document first recalls the content of the latest draft compromise provided by Paris (see EUROPE 12907/23).
It then underlines that the new architecture proposed by the Presidency concerning heat and cooling seemed to be supported “by a number of Member States”, even if “specific flexibilities for this sector were still requested by some delegations”.
Paris also assured that it had taken note of the request from several delegations to review the provision granting the Commission the power to adopt a delegated act on the modalities of applying the cascade principle to biomass (the principle of aiming for efficient use of biomass by giving priority to its material use over its energy use).
In addition, the French paper states that several delegations expressed concerns about the binding sectoral sub-targets, in particular that those relating to the use of renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs) in the transport and industry sectors were too ambitious.
In order to guide the next stage of the EU Council’s work, Paris is asking the Member States for their assessment of the possibility of extending the scope of the directive to “other virtuous fuels”.
The two documents from the Presidency will be discussed by the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) on Wednesday 13 April.
See the document on energy efficiency (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/17n
See the document on renewable energy (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/17p (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)