Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) agreed on a stable text for the proposed EU Council regulation to boost the deployment of renewable energy in the European Union by speeding up and facilitating the permitting procedures necessary for their installation, on Friday 18 November.
According to our information, the ambassadors largely supported the Czech Presidency’s compromise proposal submitted to the delegations before the meeting, with some changes.
Dated 17 November, the draft compromise includes some changes compared to its previous version (see EUROPE 13063/12).
It clarified that the regulation does not only concern the permitting procedures for future projects. This will also allow Member States to shorten ongoing procedures, i.e. those that have not yet resulted in a final decision at the time the Regulation enters into force.
The Czech document also provides for an increase in the maximum time limit for the permit procedure for the installation of geothermal heat pumps to three months. For other types of heat pumps, the deadline remains at one month (compared to three months in the European Commission’s proposal).
Member States may, however, derogate from this rule for reasons of protection of cultural or historical heritage or for reasons of national defence or security interests. A similar derogation had been introduced in the article on the installation of solar energy equipment.
The draft compromise also amends the article on the installation of solar equipment with a capacity of 50 kW or less.
For such small equipment, the Commission had proposed considering the permit as granted in the absence of a response from the competent authorities or entities within one month of the application being submitted.
While the Presidency maintains this approach, the text now allows Member States, under certain conditions, to apply a lower threshold, provided that it remains above 10.8 kW.
The text, widely supported by the ambassadors, is expected to be confirmed by the Member States’ energy ministers on Thursday 24 November, thereby endorsing the proposed regulation. Minor changes may still be made to the text on that day.
See the draft compromise submitted by the Presidency ahead of Coreper: https://aeur.eu/f/454 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)