Two days after the presentation of Mario Draghi’s report on the future of European competitiveness (see EUROPE 13478/1), the European Commission unveiled its report on the state of the Energy Union 2024 on Wednesday 11 September. It recognises the legislative work done to promote the EU’s energy transition following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but also highlights the continuing challenges of high energy prices and security of supply.
“We have done a lot during this mandate to bring prices down from the 2022 peak, but now we need to tackle the structural problems”, said European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson.
Deployment of renewable energies. According to the report, there is still a need to address “the high spread of EU industrial power prices vis-a-vis countries like the United States and China” and, in particular, to make even greater use of renewable energies.
“We are seeing the first signs in 2024 that the renewable energy deployment base is not growing as fast as it should and we need a new impetus to reach the agreed 42.5% by 2030”, explained Simson.
The report highlights that in 2022, three countries (France, Ireland and Austria) still had a share below their binding renewable energy target for 2020, set by the Renewable Energy Directive (see EUROPE 13296/32). In addition, several Member States have not reached their reference point for 2022.
The report goes on to suggest - in line with the recommendations of the Draghi report - massive investment in network infrastructure, in particular to support the electrification of the EU (see EUROPE 13479/13).
Other challenges include further reducing imports of fossil fuels, promoting domestic production of clean energy, and supporting Ukraine’s energy system, which has been under repeated attack from Russia.
Commissioner Simson also acknowledged that there was still work to be done within the REPowerEU strategy to move away from dependence on Russian gas - which is not directly subject to EU restrictions (see EUROPE 13438/3) and still accounts for 18% of imports.
End of the transit agreement via Ukraine. Asked specifically about the end of the agreement for the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine at the end of the year (see EUROPE 13477/4), Ms Simson said that there was “no need to find a new way of extending trade with Gazprom. Other sources of supply are available”.
This is particularly true of gas from Norway, which has become the EU’s main supplier, and Azerbaijani gas brought in by pipeline via Turkey. In future, it could also transit via Ukraine.
However, the Commissioner explained that the EU was not taking part in these discussions, and pointed out that the REPowerEU strategy called for “the fastest possible exit from Russian fossil fuels”.
According to Ms Simson, there is therefore no need to find alternative routes for Russian natural gas, but rather different sources of supply, such as those promoted by the AggregateEU gas demand aggregation instrument (see EUROPE 13360/21).
National energy and climate plans. The report also calls on the Member States to submit the final version of their National Energy-Climate Plans (NECPs) in order to assess the achievement of energy and climate objectives by 2030.
More than two months after the deadline (see EUROPE 13464/5), only 10 countries have submitted their copy (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden).
The introduction of these plans stems from the regulation on the governance of the Energy and Climate Action Union, a report on the operation of which was also published by the European Commission on 11 September.
The document states that the regulation has improved strategic planning - necessary to achieve the 2030 targets and pave the way for climate neutrality by 2050 - but that there are still “considerable differences in the scope and quality of Member States’ plans and strategies”.
Furthermore, previous assessments of the NECPs show that many of them lack solid estimates of the macroeconomic impact of the policies and measures planned.
Finally, the document recognises the need to ensure that plans are submitted on time.
To see the State of the Energy Union report: https://aeur.eu/f/den
To see the evaluation of the governance regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/de7 (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)