At the Energy Council on Monday 16 December, the European energy ministers expressed their wishes regarding future energy policy, including the content of the action plan for affordable energy prices, which is due to be presented on 26 February as part of the ‘Clean Energy Plan’.
Faced with price volatility and a loss of competitiveness on the world stage, the ministers called for working “towards a true Energy Union”, while remaining traditionally divided on the place to be given to renewables and nuclear power in European legislation.
Electricity market. During their debate, several countries, such as Spain and Finland, urged the rapid implementation of existing legislation, such as the electricity market reform (see EUROPE 13454/27).
According to the new European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jørgensen, the proper implementation of this reform can effectively reduce prices. Referring to the recommendations of the Draghi report, the Commissioner also emphasised the desire to decouple electricity and gas prices, “not at wholesale level, but at retail level”.
Faced with price volatility in certain regions, some Member States have asked for specific safeguards. Italy, for example, wants EU energy policy to take systematic account of the elimination of price differentials between Member States. Belgium, for its part, has proposed that the Energy Union should examine the possibility of adopting a single European energy price.
Several countries also stressed the need for the European Commission to present an action plan for electrification, to improve flexibility, to invest in energy storage and to promote demand response.
Simplification. Several countries have insisted that any future revision of legislation should not increase the administrative burden.
Sweden, in particular, called for a halt to the creation of sub-targets during legislative revisions, which “only increase bureaucracy”. The Swedish minister, Ebba Busch, has called for greater emphasis to be placed on binding targets, which Member States should be able to achieve in a “more flexible” way.
Nuclear Alliance. For the pro-nuclear countries, the European Commission will absolutely have to give priority to the principle of technological neutrality in order to ensure the EU’s energy security.
The French Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, emphasised the deployment of “low-carbon, controllable energy that is as competitive as possible”, which can be produced according to demand, unlike renewables.
Ahead of the Council meeting, the countries of the Nuclear Alliance (https://aeur.eu/f/ety ) expressed their concerns to Commissioner Jørgensen about the inclusion in his mission statement of a renewable target for 2040.
According to these countries, this new objective should take account of all decarbonised energies, taking into account the ‘controllability’ aspect.
On this point, Dan Jørgensen said that he did not want to “mix renewables and nuclear”, but to ensure that the introduction of a new target for renewables did not “undermine the possibility of using other clean technologies”.
He also explained to the ministers that the Commission’s new initiatives should take nuclear energy into account. “I think it can and must go hand in hand with renewable energies”, he said.
Friends of renewables. Mr Jørgensen also sat at the table of the “renewable-friendly” countries (see EUROPE 13503/14), which, for their part, are relying on a robust post-2030 legislative framework for renewable energies to speed up their deployment. The priority expressed by these countries was the need to speed up licensing procedures.
At a press conference, Mr Jørgensen was keen to point out that energy prices were not high “because of renewables”, but precisely because “we don’t have enough renewables”, pointing out that renewables will form the “cornerstone” of the EU’s energy policy in the future.
Ending reliance on Russian fossil fuels. The Commissioner also reiterated the Commission’s commitment to presenting, within the first 100 days, a roadmap for definitively ending reliance not only on Russian gas, but also oil and uranium.
Interconnections. To ensure sustainable energy prices, a majority of ministers called for more to be done to improve interconnections between Member States and encourage investment in network infrastructure.
On this point, the Hungarian Presidency also presented its progress report on the action plan for networks, adopted in November 2023 (see EUROPE 13543/8).
Commissioner Jørgensen has acknowledged, as did former Commissioner Kadri Simson before him, the under-funding of the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’, which should form part of the negotiations for the new multiannual financial framework (MFF). (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)