The reform of the electricity market was at the top of the agenda for the EU ‘Energy’ Council on Monday 19 June (see other news) and the European energy ministers returned to the agreement reached on Friday 16 concerning the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) (see EUROPE 13203/29). On Parliament’s side, the directive’s rapporteurs have accepted the EU Council’s changes, allowing the legislative procedure to continue before the text can be formally adopted.
Shortly before 7pm on Friday 16 June, the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) validated the agreement on the RED directive reached at the end of the interinstitutional negotiations on 30 March (see EUROPE 13153/1).
Negotiations had been held up for several weeks by countries such as France, which were calling for low-carbon hydrogen (including hydrogen produced from nuclear energy) to be better taken into account in the renewable hydrogen targets set in the directive (see EUROPE 13184/20).
The text now includes a new recital aimed at ensuring that, under certain conditions, existing ammonia production plants do not count towards the calculation of hydrogen of fossil origin, thus enabling countries like France, which produces ammonia, to meet the renewable hydrogen production target (see EUROPE 13201/17).
The European Commission has also circulated a declaration, attached to the agreement, which explains, among other things, the “need to support Member States in implementing these targets “ and the fact that “non-fossil energy sources other than renewables contribute to achieving climate neutrality by 2050 for those Member States that decide to rely on other energy sources”.
On their arrival at the EU ‘Energy’ Council, several ministers welcomed the agreement reached. The French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, commented: “We are satisfied with this compromise. We had a very ambitious position on renewable energies, but we wanted non-fossil fuel solutions to be recognised, which was the case in the text adopted at the end of March. We also wanted to focus on specific issues relating to ammonia”.
The rapporteurs for the directive in the European Parliament have approved the addition proposed by Coreper.
“The new recital (on ammonia production) seems to have been necessary to secure a majority in the EU Council. As a Parliament, we would have preferred to do without it, but we will not oppose the continuation of the procedure in the direction of a more rapid expansion of renewable energies”, said the rapporteur, Markus Pieper (EPP, German).
The text will now be voted on by Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on 28 June, before the plenary vote in September.
To see the agreement: https://aeur.eu/f/7kx (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)