On Tuesday 18 March, members of European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) adopted a resolution calling for support for energy-intensive sectors. Pointing out the difficulties facing these sectors, primarily high energy prices, MEPs are calling for rapid action on energy prices, licensing, trade defence and carbon leakage.
Many of these themes are expected to be taken up by the European Commission in its action plan for steel, which is due to be presented on Wednesday 19 March, according to a provisional version of the document (see EUROPE 13601/9).
MEPs are calling on the European Commission to speed up permit granting for clean energy projects and to accelerate implementation of the reform of the electricity market. The European Commission has already identified these same priorities in its Affordable Energy Action Plan (see EUROPE 13588/3).
The ITRE committee calls for a move away from natural gas, but stresses that certain sectors cannot be completely electrified and must be able to rely on reasonable gas prices.
Support for energy-intensive sectors also requires public funding, according to MEPs. They call for “strengthening funding mechanisms“ to support energy-intensive sectors in their transition.
Members of the ITRE committee also adopted an oral question to the Commission on its intentions to support energy-intensive sectors.
See the resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/fzp; and the oral question: https://aeur.eu/f/fzr (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)