Speaking at a panel on the development of hydrogen in the EU as part of the ‘EU Energy Summit’ an event organised by European Business Summit on Monday 7 April, Łukasz Koliński, Director at the European Commission’s DG Energy said that Member States needed to speed up the implementation of existing frameworks, including the revised Renewable Energy Directive (see EUROPE 13296/32) to help hydrogen take off in the EU.
“The Directive sets targets for renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO), including hydrogen, for industry and transport. They must be transposed into national legislation as of May this year. And this is precisely to create demand”, explained Mr Koliński.
However, he acknowledged that few Member States were on track to successfully transpose the Directive by next month. “We are putting on the pressure. We are making sure that as many Member States as possible have these targets in place, because that’s what’s needed to speed up deployment”, he insisted.
The industry also stressed the need to encourage EU countries to take action. It also stressed the need to review the operation of the existing legislative framework, in particular the provisions of the delegated act on RFNBOs (see EUROPE 13599/22) and the European Hydrogen Bank, before introducing new measures.
On the question of funding, Mr Koliński pointed out that the negotiations on the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) were an opportunity to “recalibrate” the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in order to provide adequate support for hydrogen. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)