At a BusinessEurope conference devoted to the challenges of energy and climate transition and the impact of energy prices on European competitiveness, Pierre Schellekens, Director at the European Commission’s DG ENER, spoke about the measures expected in the ‘Action Plan for Energy Affordability’ announced by the European Commission.
This action plan is mentioned in the mission letter of the Commissioner-designate for Energy, Dan Jørgensen, and is part of the ‘Clean Industrial Deal’, which should be unveiled within the first 100 days of the new European Commission.
As Mr Schellekens pointed out, “industrial retail electricity prices are two to three times higher than in the United States”.
This price divergence with US and Chinese competitors is a major concern of the recent ‘Draghi’ report on the future competitiveness of the EU (see EUROPE 13478/1) and that of BusinessEurope (see EUROPE 13446/16), published in July, calling for urgent action by European leaders to make a success of the EU’s climate transition, while ensuring its competitiveness.
According to Mr Schellekens, the ‘Energy Affordability Action Plan’ will include actions to minimise the risk of investment, increase the deployment of renewable energies and try to further simplify licensing procedures.
He also explained that access to capital will be essential, mentioning in particular the need to urgently address the need to develop electricity networks, necessary for the massive deployment of renewable energies.
In his view, some form of EU public funding will remain essential for cross-border projects, “because the Member States will not fund them (...)”.
He also spoke out in favour of flexibility measures, translated at national level, to enable some industry and households to benefit from the increasingly recurrent phenomenon of negative prices (produced when there is a surplus of electricity due to a fall in demand and an oversupply, particularly of renewable energy). (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)