The European Parliament’s rapporteur on the revision of the Energy Efficiency Directive (2018/2002), Niels Fuglsang (S&D, Denmark), announced that he would ask the European Commission to carry out an impact assessment of an increase in the target originally foreseen in the European Commission’s revision proposal, on Wednesday 20 April during an exchange with the other members of Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE).
This request aims to study the effect of setting a target for reducing energy consumption in the EU by 2030 at 19% (compared to the 2020 baseline effort) - the rate proposed in Mr Fuglsang’s draft report (see EUROPE 12894/6) - or 13% - the target advocated by the Renew Europe group -, compared to the 9% target initially proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12762/8).
The Greens/EFA would prefer a target of 20%.
Although the request for a new impact assessment was supported by the shadow rapporteurs of the other political groups, it was reportedly mainly supported by the EPP group.
Mr Fuglsang hopes to have the results of this analysis by mid-May to feed into the negotiations between the political groups in the Parliament.
He also wants the European Commission to carry out a more thorough impact assessment in the longer term to take account of the energy consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Pernille Weiss (Denmark), shadow rapporteur on this dossier for the EPP group, said that “we cannot consider the current situation to be a fixed basis for this directive as it establishes a pathway to 2030”.
The vote on the draft report in ITRE is scheduled for 14 June. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)