The European Commission and the European Energy Ministers, meeting in Council on Tuesday 19 December (see EUROPE 13317/1), revisited the energy dossiers completed by the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council.
The European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, expressed particular appreciation for the work led by the Spanish Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, and prepared by the Czech and Swedish Presidencies, to reach a large number of agreements on legislative texts concerning the European energy sector.
“The European Union now has a complete framework for its transition to clean energy, and we can concentrate on implementing actions on the ground”, she said.
In the space of 6 months, the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council has worked to reach agreements on the long-awaited reform of the electricity market (see EUROPE 13314/4, 13294/5), as well as the ‘gas’ package aimed at facilitating the penetration of renewable and low-carbon gases into the energy system (see EUROPE 13302/7, 13310/5), the directive on the energy efficiency of buildings (see EUROPE 13310/6) and the regulation on the reduction of methane emissions (see EUROPE 13293/5).
In a series of speeches, a number of European energy ministers paid tribute to the work that has been done, recalled a number of national priorities and stressed the difficulty of certain issues, such as the reform of the electricity market, on which it has not been easy for the Member States to reach a consensus (see EUROPE 13273/2).
No regulation on energy storage
However, Minister Ribera told the press that she would have liked to see the implementation of a regulation on storage. “This was not the case. Many Member States have asked for more time so that the Commission can assess the different contexts in the various Member States, and we have accepted that this could be a second phase in our regulation on electricity market design”, she explained.
On her arrival at the Council, the Belgian Minister for the Ecological Transition, Tinne van der Straeten, said she was ready to take up the torch during the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council, in order to finalise the texts at a technical level, as well as to work on the strategic agenda of the next European Commission.
“The Belgian Presidency will focus on renewable energy and access (to this energy) for all European citizens (to the) transition and inclusive energy infrastructure, and will be ready to work on this from 1 January”, she said. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)